


A String Tightly Knotted

by spirithorse



Category: Code Geass
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Reincarnation, kinkmeme fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-21 16:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 136,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6058746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spirithorse/pseuds/spirithorse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing up in a shrine means seeing spirits or dead people's souls are merely a daily happening for him. It's even part of his job to help those souls pass on to the afterlife. </p><p>Kururugi Suzaku and his partner/cousin, Sumeragi Kaguya have been acknowledged as world's best in dealing with spirit matters. So it's not really surprising when the Britannian Royal Family calls them for their service. Yet what they never expect is to deal with the soul of the infamous Demon Emperor. Now, what should one do to help the most hated man in the world to achieve his peace?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The House that Emperors Built

**Author's Note:**

> Taken from the following kinkmeme prompt: “Growing up in a shrine means seeing spirits or dead people's souls are merely a daily happening for him. It's even part of his job to help those souls pass on to the afterlife. 
> 
> Kururugi Suzaku and his partner/cousin, Sumeragi Kaguya have been acknowledged as world's best in dealing with spirit matters. So it's not really surprising when the Britannian Royal Family calls them for their service. Yet what they never expect is to deal with the soul of the infamous Demon Emperor. Now, what should one do to help the most hated man in the world to achieve his peace?
> 
> The settings should be in a hundred years in future or so, with the whole cast (except for Lelouch obviously) has been reincarnated in the peaceful world. Could be gen or with hinted romance (00 please).”
> 
> I’ve deviated from the prompt just a little bit, mostly in that I don't think I included _everyone_ from the series. Updates to this will be twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Fridays.

“Ghosts are real, this much I know. There are things that tied them to a place, very much like they do to us. Some remained tied to a bunch of land, a time and date, a spilling of blood, a terrible crime... There are others, others that hold on to an emotion, a grief, a lost, revenge, or love. Those, they never go away.” _  
-_ Edith Cushing _, Crimson Peak_

“…the house from which no one who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no going back.” _  
\- The Epic of Gilgamesh_

* * *

Nunnally stared up at the old house from her hiding space partially behind Euphemia. She glanced at all the windows, half expecting to see someone staring down from one of them. All of the windows remained black, their curtains drawn over them. If Nunnally hadn’t known all the stories about the place, she would have thought that it was just another of the mansions built in old Pendragon. She doubted that the Aries Villa was even open, not when most of the royal family and its branches were being housed in the royal complex and their townhouses scattered around Pendragon. Nunnally couldn’t think of any living person that would be in Aries Villa, which made her shiver.

She squeezed Euphemia’s hand, relieved when her cousin squeezed back. She glanced up at her cousin, watching as Euphemia gave the building a long look before stepping forward.

Nunnally found herself dragged forward a step, resisting the urge to dig in her heels. As long as she was with Euphemia she was safe, although Nunnally would have preferred if her brother had come along. Then again, if Julius had been around when Pollux had started talking about the ghost that haunted the Aries Villa he would have laughed and then dragged her off to bed. Her brother wasn’t one to believe in ghosts.

Nunnally wished that she could laugh it off, but it was hard when she was staring at the house itself. She swallowed and tugged on Euphemia’s arm, hoping to get her attention. Nunnally was relieved when Euphemia looked back at her.

Euphemia nodded, careful to not let go of her hand. “We’ve seen the place, and there’s no sign of the ghost. We should get back.”

“Why? Are you scared?”

Nunnally flinched behind Euphemia as Carine turned to grin at the two of them. Pollux wasn’t far behind, resting his hands on his hips. She hated how Pollux looked pleased with himself, it made her want to shrink behind Euphemia. They were only out at the mansion because Pollux and his brother had demanded that they go. Neither of them had believed the stories about the ghost in the villa. Then again, neither of them had visited Pendragon enough to hear all of the stories.

At least Euphemia didn’t look intimidated. She just sighed and squeezed Nunnally’s hand again. “No. You’re the one who wanted to see the house. We should get back. You wouldn’t want your parents figuring out that you snuck out.”

Pollux looked uncomfortable for a moment before he shook his head. “Not yet. We haven’t even been inside."

“Can we even get in?” The question came from Maribelle, the girl standing at the back of the group. She shrugged and gestured at the door. “It looks like the place is locked up. The owners probably don’t want people sneaking into their house at night.”

Carine huffed and stamped her foot. “But _we_ own it. So we should be able to go inside whenever we want.”

Nunnally glanced up at Euphemia, hoping that she would just turn away. It would be easier for the rest of them to walk away then. Nunnally didn’t want to be the first to move, not when Carine would remain behind. There were still three weeks before they returned home, and Nunnally knew that Julius and Euphemia wouldn’t always be with her. Carine seemed adept at finding those moments, making the three weeks left feel like forever.

She flinched behind Euphemia as Carine shot a look her direction, only peeking out when she heard Carine walking away. Her eyes widened when she saw that Carine was storming up towards the house, but she didn’t do anything to stop her. The house would be locked and they would be able to go back home.

Nunnally shivered as Carine mounted the stairs, not sure if it was because of the night or because her cousin looked so vulnerable on her own.

Carine hesitated on the front porch for a moment before she tugged at the door. Nunnally felt like the breath was punched out of her when the door swung open with Carine’s tugging. Her cousin stood on the front porch for a moment more before waving them closer.

Pollux and Castor were the first to rush over, Nunnally surprised when Euphemia started walking towards the front porch. She yelped and dug her heels in, trying to pull her cousin back. “No.”

Euphemia stopped, Nunnally seeing a hint of a blush as Euphemia turned to look at her. Nunnally shook her head, tugging on Euphemia’s arm. “We have to go back, right?”

“We do…” Euphemia bit her lip, swaying in place before reaching over to touch Nunnally’s hand. “But I just want a peek. I’ll be right back, and you can stay here if you want.”

Nunnally shook her head. Going inside of the house would be bad, but staying outside of it alone would be worse. There was no telling where the ghost would appear, and maybe being so close to the house would be enough. Nunnally was sure that it would show up as soon as the others left, and they would. Even Maribelle was starting to inch towards the open front door and she had never believed the stories either. Nunnally would be left alone, which was the worst thing to be.

She stuck close to Euphemia, not daring to let go of her cousin’s arm, not even when they moved up the stairs. Euphemia didn’t seem to mind, her attention was on what little they could see of the house as they approached. As Nunnally peered out from behind Euphemia, she could see why.

The front hall of the Aries Villa was impressive. It looked like something that Nunnally had seen in the period shows that were sometimes on the television. It was ornate, but in the complicated patterns and less in the stuff that was cluttered around the room. Or maybe the stuff would have helped, it was hard to tell when most of it was covered up.

There were large piles pushed to the sides of the room, tucked out of the way of the doors and staircases. Each pile had a white sheet thrown over them, rendering the whole thing nearly shapeless. Nunnally stepped out from behind Euphemia, shuffling to the doorway before stopping herself. She thought she could see the glitter of something that was just peeking out from the sheet, Nunnally tempted to reach out and see what it was, but she jerked her hand back. Checking underneath the sheet would mean stepping into the house.

She took a quick step back, stopping at the edge of the porch. The house was beautiful, temptingly so, but she didn’t want to give into it. Nunnally rubbed her hands together, glancing around at the yard. She felt like someone was watching them, but she couldn’t see where it was coming from. She craned her head back, looking for someone in the windows, but they were as blank as before.

Nunnally jumped at a loud thud from the house. She took a quick step forward, sucking in a quick breath when she saw Castor and Pollux wandering into the center of the room.

The twins remained still for a moment before Pollux moved over to one of the sheets and tugged it off. Nunnally flinched back when the sheet fluttered to the ground, fully expecting something to jump out, but there was nothing but a pile of furniture underneath. Nunnally stared at the ornate chairs carefully placed on the table and tied together. Pollux didn’t seem to be impressed by it. He pulled at the rope before rolling his eyes. “This isn’t frightening. It’s just a bunch of old stuff. Where’s the ghost?”

The last word echoed in the hall for a moment, Nunnally stepping to the side. She stopped herself from slipping behind one of the piles, not wanting to chance pulling the thing down on her. None of them looked too sturdy. She curled her fingers into one of the drop cloths, looking around. She could see her cousins doing the same thing, but she couldn’t see anything. There were nothing but the piles of stuff as far as she could see.

Nunnally leaned to one side, trying to see down the main hallway, but she could only see the suits of armor that were lined up down the hall. She could vaguely see something at the end of the hall, but Nunnally was sure that it was another one of the suits of armor. There was nothing in the house but old furniture and things that had been moved out of the royal palace. She edged away from behind the pile, reaching out for Euphemia’s hand. “There’s nothing here. We should get back before anyone notices we’re gone.”

“But I want to see the ghost,” Carine whined. She crossed her arms and sat down on the floor. “I’m not leaving until I see it.”

“Carine’s right. We came all this way.” Castor shrugged. “We might as well look for the ghost.”

“Nunnally’s right too.” Maribelle spoke up from where she was peeking under one of the sheets. “Aunt Sofia will throw a fit when she figures out that the two of you snuck out.”

Castor looked cowed, but Pollux managed to puff out his chest for a moment, although Nunnally saw how nervous he looked. Her cousin rubbed at his wrist before dropping his hands to his side.

“Then we’re going to have to make this quick.” Pollux glanced around before walking over to the grand staircase. He patted the ornate carving at the end. “It’ll be faster if we split up.”

“What?!”

Nunnally wasn’t the only one to nearly shout the question. She jerked her head to look over at where Carine was sitting on the floor. Her younger cousin looked just as shocked, but Carine was quick to snap her mouth shut. She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. “We have to go in groups. It’s no good if we’re alone. If someone else finds the ghost, the rest of us won’t get to see it. At least more of will get to see it like this.”

Pollux nodded, reaching out to tug his twin brother closer. “Then you, me and Castor will look in one place. Maribelle, Euphy and Nunnally can look somewhere else.”

Nunnally nodded, scuttling back to Euphemia’s side. She was relieved when Euphemia immediately reached out for her, holding onto her hand tightly. Nunnally looked back up at her cousin, surprised to see Euphemia starting to look frightened. All the way over to the old building Euphemia hadn’t seemed to be anything other than just interested in seeing the place; now she didn’t seem too sure. She leaned closer to Euphemia, having to rise up onto her tiptoes to get close to her cousin’s ear. “Don’t worry, we don’t have to do anything.”

A squeeze told her that Euphemia had heard her. Nunnally glanced over at Maribelle, watching as the girl continued to look at the pile of furniture that she had pulled the cover back from. Maribelle didn’t look too interested in going deeper into the house, which was fine with Nunnally. They could head back to the royal complex or just stay in the front hall of the house. The others could go as far into the mansion as they wanted, they would stay nice and safe in the entrance hall.

She watched as Carine, Castor and Pollux took off for the staircase. Nunnally was more than happy to let them explore the upper floor. It might not look as cluttered as the floor they were on, but Nunnally didn’t feel comfortable farther away from the door.

She was about to turn so she could peek under one of the sheets when she saw Carine stop at the base of the stairs. The girl stared at the three of them before pointing at her. “She’s going to tell.”

Nunnally shook her head and stepped back, surprised when Carine started towards her. The girl reached out for her arm, stopping when Maribelle stepped away from the pile of furniture that she had been looking over. Carine curled her hands into a fist and nodded at Nunnally. “I mean, she doesn’t want to be here in the first place. What’s to stop her from running back and telling everyone?”

Nunnally shook her head. “But I won’t.”

“How do we know for sure?” Carine leaned forward before glancing over at Euphemia. “Nunnally should come with us.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“I agree.” Pollux spoke up from his place halfway up the stairs. “Nunnally will come with us.”

“Then Castor comes with us.” Euphemia stepped forward, Nunnally seeing a hint of a grin cross her cousin’s face. “It’s only fair.”

Pollux swayed in place, Nunnally hoping that he would just give in and let them spread out in the groups that had already been formed. Pollux never wanted to split up with Castor.

Apparently the pull of the house was too much for Pollux to ignore, because he nodded. He nudged Castor away from his side, motioning towards Nunnally with his free hand. “Come on. We’re wasting time.”

Nunnally watched as Castor trudged over to them, trying to calm the way that her stomach flipped. She glanced up to where Carine and Pollux were gesturing impatiently. Nunnally swallowed and shuffled over to the base of the stairs. The sooner they were satisfied that there was nothing in the house, the sooner that she could get back. That knowledge didn’t stop her from looking over her shoulder at where Castor was sulking in the middle of the entrance hall.

Euphemia gave her a nod before reaching out for Maribelle’s arm. The two of them conferred about something before starting down one of the halls, Castor lagging after them. Nunnally leaned out to watch them go, sighing when they were out of sight. She curled her fingers around the railing, using the wood to steady herself before starting to climb the stairs.

* * *

Euphemia hunched her shoulders as she walked down the hallway. The suits of armor seemed to loom over them, Euphemia eying the weapons that they held. She fully expected one of the swords or maces to fall down in front of them, it was the sort of thing she expected from an old house, especially one with so many stories about it.

She looked up to where Maribelle was walking ahead of them. Maribelle seemed to be more interested in looking at the artwork in the halls than looking in the rooms. Sometimes she would glance into the rooms, but Maribelle was usual quick to move on and continue poking around at the things that interested her. Euphemia didn’t think that Maribelle’s search would get them anything, but she didn’t really mind. Just looking around the old house was spooky enough for her.

Euphemia rubbed her arms, wishing that she had brought a thicker jacket. The night had been nice and cool. Even with the walk to the Aries Villa, it wouldn’t have been enough for her to wish for a thicker jacket. The house itself wasn’t cold, but the dark hallways were making a chill run down her spine. Their flashlights helped keep them from bumping into anything that was in the hallways but they also just seemed to be making the dark shadows of the hallways worse.

She twisted around to see how Castor was doing, watching as her cousin tapped on the chest of one of the suits of armor. Euphemia opened her mouth to tell him to stop, quickly snapping it shut. She didn’t think that looking at the suits of armor would anger the ghost, especially since the Demon Emperor had died in 2018. Castor could do what he wanted to the suits of armor, they probably weren’t haunted, or so she thought.

Euphemia swallowed nervously, glancing up at where Maribelle was wandering to the next picture half hidden behind the suits of armor. Sure that she hadn’t lost one of their team, Euphemia looked back at Castor. Her cousin had moved away from the armor and started walking back down the hall again. She waited for him to catch up, glad for the light from his flashlight in addition to her own. She glanced over at one of the suits of armor, watching the shadows that their lights threw on it before tearing her gaze away. “So…are there any other ghosts in the house?”

Castor spend a moment thinking over her answer, Euphemia watching as he curled in on himself before shrugging. “I don’t know. It would make sense if there were. But no one has said anything.”

“So we might run into someone other than the Demon Emperor?” She thought she saw Castor mouth something, unable to catch what he said. She flicked the beam of her flashlight ahead towards where Maribelle was staring at a series of doors towards the end of the hall. “So, how will we know? I don’t think I’m going to be able to just stand around and really look.”

Castor gave her a relieved smile. “Neither do I. Pollux was the one who came up with the idea.”

 “I thought so.”

“Well, he was bored. Everyone else is so busy that they don’t seem to have much time for us. Pollux gets bored easily.” Castor rubbed his hand against the seam of his pants, Euphemia trying to ignore the motion. They were all bound to be nervous in the old house, especially with all of the stuff that had been crammed into it.

Castor cleared his throat, Euphemia jumping at the sound. He gave her an apologetic smile before raising his flashlight slightly. “I heard that his majesty considered putting the overflow up in here, but he ran out of time to clear it out.”

“I can see why.” Euphemia caught the flutter of another dust sheet in the room that Maribelle opened. She stepped away from Castor, hoping to get a better look at the room only for Maribelle to close the door. Euphemia sighed and slowed down again, looking at the doors that lined the halls. “This place is huge.”

“Yeah, but they’ve probably filled all the rooms with junk. Or they haven’t touched what Emperor Lance left behind.” Castor tipped his head to the side before shivering violently. “Do you think he’s here?”

Euphemia bit her lip as she thought it over. Emperor Lance was before her time, the one hundred and first emperor of Britannia, the one who wouldn’t give up the Areas like his mother had promised. There were plenty of rumors about him, about his parties and the way he had tried to pull Britannia back into the way it had been under his grandfather, Charles zi Britannia. She had read a few of his speeches and they were filled with the glory of Britannia and how the empire should strive for her former greatness. It sounded like the ravings of a madman now, someone that Euphemia would hate to run into in the mansion.

She glanced up at Maribelle, relieved when the girl shook her head. Maribelle had paused at the next door, her fingers tracing over some design there. When she was done, she looked over at them with a smile. “No. The Aries Villa was more of a place that parties were held. He preferred to live in the imperial palace, or Vizcaya. He allowed all his friends to stay here though. They say that this was the last place that Lionel Strickland stayed.”

Euphemia shivered, rubbing her arms as Maribelle mumbled an apology. Her cousin pushed away from the door to face them. “It’s just a story. People like telling stories and some people take it too seriously.”

“Like my brother.” Castor sighed and moved to join her by the door.

Maribelle didn’t say anything, she just pushed the door open. The hinges creaked, Euphemia hating the way that the sound echoed in the corridor, but that didn’t stop her from rushing up to look into the room.

It was a big one, extending out from the wing of the house. On one wall there were a series of windows, Euphemia squinting to see if they were plain or stained glass. She lifted her flashlight, raising an eyebrow when she saw that the stained glass windows were all made to glorify Emperor Lance in some way or another. Her flashlight moved across an image of Zero with their trademark helmet, images of the emperor proclaiming laws and a window made out of triangles of yellow stained glass, a few of them with flaws in their center that almost looked like an eye.

The floor was a chessboard pattern in light and dark wood. There was a tight roll on the floor, Euphemia assuming that it was a carpet rolled up for storage. She could see a huge table pushed against the wall opposite the stained glass windows, the wood that the table was made out of almost matching the wood paneling on the wall. The table itself just barely ended before the grand fireplace that took up most of the wall.

She nearly dropped her flashlight when she was jostled, glancing over in time to catch Castor’s apologetic glance. Her cousin just nodded towards the other end of the room. Euphemia followed his gaze to the dais at the end of the room, rolling her eyes at the twelve seats that surrounded the elaborate throne at the far end of the room. The whole set up looked medieval, which seemed just like what Emperor Lance would have done.

It was no wonder that King Richard never wanted to stay in the Aries Villa, the whole thing just seemed to be a testament to the greatness of the Britannian Empire. The whole thing needed a redesign, but Euphemia didn’t see how King Richard would get the time. It was easier to just stuff the house full of the rest of the unwanted junk from the royal family.

Euphemia turned away from the room, wandering a bit further down the hall before stopping at a door. She glanced over her shoulder at where her two cousins were waiting before yanking open the door.

She expected another room created for the glory of the empire, but she found a library instead. Euphemia stepped into the library, craning her neck to look at the second story of bookshelves. Some of the shelves were covered with dust sheets, but some had fallen off to reveal the books that were placed on the shelves. Euphemia walked over to one of the uncovered shelves, running her fingers over the books.

Euphemia picked one up at random, thumbing through a book of old laws before putting it back on the shelf. She turned slowly in place, smiling to herself as she saw the old desk close to the fireplace and the rounded tables that were evenly spaced in the center of the room. The whole room looked comfortable, and Euphemia felt herself relax for the first time since she had entered the Aries Villa. Whatever still lingered in the house, whether it was the ghost of the Demon Emperor or Emperor Lance’s ego, it hadn’t pushed as far as the library.

She leaned on the desk, looking around the room as Maribelle and Castor entered. She heard Castor laugh, watching as her cousin rushed over to one of the bookshelves. He started scanning over the titles, even pulling down one of the sheets to look at what was beneath.

Maribelle was more composed, looking over the books on one of the shelves before going to stand by Euphemia. She crouched by the desk, pulling open the drawers. Euphemia heard Maribelle huff, looking to see that her cousin had found all the drawers empty. Maribelle stood up to lean against the desk, raising one shoulder in a shrug. “I tried.”

Euphemia nodded, keeping her attention on Castor as he bobbed around the shelves. “Everything interesting has probably already been brought back to the imperial palace or the caretaker has put it somewhere safe.”

Maribelle hummed, Euphemia taking the noise as agreement until the girl shook her head. “The caretaker lives in the villa, right?” Maribelle waited long enough for Euphemia to nod before she spoke again. “So, why haven’t we seen her? We haven’t exactly been quiet.”

“They’re having a night out?” It wasn’t the best answer, but Euphemia couldn’t think of another one. Maribelle was right, there was no reason that they shouldn’t have been caught. Euphemia glanced up at the ceiling, listening for footsteps, but she couldn’t hear any. Maybe the caretaker was out, or maybe they were dealing with the group that had headed upstairs, but Euphemia hadn’t heard anything. She shivered as a chill ran down her spine. “We shouldn’t be here.”

She saw Maribelle nod out of the corner of her eye, taking the motion as a promise of support. She hadn’t minded when Pollux had suggested going to the Aries Villa, her mother had never let her go anywhere near the house whenever they had visited Pendragon before. Then again, she had thought that he would stop on the outside. She had been interested in the front hall but going further into the house had just been worse, save for the library itself. She swallowed and pushed away from the desk.

It didn’t matter if they found the ghost of the Demon Emperor or not, her gut feeling was telling her to get out. Besides, the party that King Richard was holding couldn’t last for too much longer, and then their parents would come to check on them. Euphemia didn’t want to think about what would happen if her mother didn’t find her there.

She tugged on Maribelle’s arm before going around to where Castor was peering at something on one of the bookshelves. She walked over to the boy, tapping on his shoulder. “Come on, we have to go.”

Castor nodded, although he didn’t look away from the think on the shelf. Euphemia frowned and stepped around him to get a better look, her mouth dropping open at the small object that was sitting in a small box. “Is that…”

Castor nodded, Euphemia seeing a smile cross his face. “It has to be. I never thought I would see one, especially since only the UFN uses them.”

Euphemia let out her breath slowly, staring at the Knightmare key. It was worn and part of it was burned, but Euphemia could still see places where the metal gleamed gold. She marveled at it for a moment more before shaking her head. “We should get back. We’ve wasted too much time.”

Her cousin didn’t act like he heard her. He reached out for another book, frowning when it didn’t slide out easily. He grabbed the book with both hands and yanked it forward, Euphemia hearing a click before the bookcase swung inward.

Euphemia grabbed onto Castor’s shoulder and yanked him backwards, the two of them stumbling into the center of the room. She glanced over at Maribelle, watching as her cousin darted around the desk to aim her flashlight into the passage that had been revealed.

Maribelle glanced back at them, a quick smile crossing her face. “They did say that Emperor Lance was paranoid.” She turned back to stare into the passage. “I wonder where it goes.”

Euphemia leaned towards the passage before shaking her head. “We can’t go down there, not without the others. We don’t even know how far down it goes.”

“Right.” Castor reached around to push the book back into place, the bookcase clicking as it swung back into place. He reached out to pat the bookshelf before stepping away. “We’ll just have to come back some other time, but during the day.”

Euphemia nodded in agreement, not sure that she would ever come back to the house. If Castor and Pollux wanted to come back and risk getting caught by both their parents and the caretaker then they could. Euphemia was going to stay away from the house while she could.

She walked out of the library, freezing in the hallway at the sound of footsteps. She turned around to look behind her, trying to hold the flashlight still as she tried to figure out where it was coming from. Euphemia couldn’t see anyone coming from behind her, but there was a corner that blocked her view.

Euphemia took two steps back, grunting as she knocked into Castor. She bit her lip to keep from making another noise, keeping her eyes locked on the corner.

She jumped when Castor tapped her shoulder, looking back at him when he did it again. Castor pointed to the ceiling, Euphemia tipping her head back. Now that she was looking up, the footsteps were louder. Euphemia swallowed and looked back at Castor.

There was every chance that the caretaker had finally come to investigate what they were hearing, but there was also a chance that it was something else.

Euphemia felt her stomach twist as she looked at the expression on Castor and Maribelle’s faces. The two of them were probably thinking the same thing, and it was up to one of them to actually take action. It didn’t matter which one it was, the others were in danger either way.

She cleared her throat, the sound too loud in the hallway. Euphemia winced, throwing a quick glance at one of the suits of armor before swinging her flashlight back the way they had come. “I think-”

Screams interrupted her before she could say anything else.

Euphemia went still, staring down the hall as the sound of the screams echoed weirdly around the house. The echo had just started to fade when Castor shoved past her, rushing back towards the entrance hall. Euphemia was a few strides behind him, sprinting faster when the screaming started again.

* * *

Nunnally kept to the side of the hallway, eyeing the red carpet that ran down the hall. The floorboards creaked under her feet, Nunnally worried that they would give out if she walked in the center of the hallway.

Pollux and Carine didn’t seem to have the same worry, they were just walking down the center of the hall. Carine would sometimes dart ahead to pull open a door, peering into the room before moving on to the next one. Pollux barely glanced in the rooms and Nunnally tried to do the same. She didn’t want to see any more of the house than she had to. Maybe if she tried to keep herself from poking her nose where it didn’t belong, the Demon Emperor wouldn’t appear. Then, they could just go back.

She swallowed and stepped out into the center of the hall to get around the door that Carine had opened. The quick glance she got of the room showed that it looked like another guest room, just like all the others she had looked at. It felt like all they had found were guest rooms with all of the furniture covered up. Sometimes they would get rooms packed with what looked like junk, but those were rare. Nunnally supposed that most of the things in storage had been taken up into the attic, something that she was glad about. She didn’t like be startled by the piles of stuff in the rooms, especially when they looked like humans in the dim light.

The door clicked shut, Nunnally breathing a sigh of relief. So far they hadn’t run into anything spooky, something that she was happy about. It was bad enough to be sneaking through the old house filled with weird shadows, she didn’t want to have to deal with what they were actually looking for.

She looked ahead to where Carine was opening another door. Her cousin huffed and slammed the door shut, Carine leaning against it and glaring at Pollux. “You said there would be a ghost. Where is he?”

“He should be here.” Pollux didn’t sound too sure. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and crossed his arms. “Everyone says that the Demon Emperor haunts the Aries Villa.”

“Well he obviously doesn’t. We would have run into him by now.” Carine huffed and pushed away from the door. “This is stupid.”

“No it isn’t!” Pollux didn’t bother to keep his voice down, Nunnally wincing as his voice rose. “There other ghosts here too. There has to be. The Demon Emperor has killed plenty of people in here. There was that lord guy…and the baby.”

The answer seemed to satisfy Carine. She continued to move down the hall, peeking into the doors. “Good. I want to see plenty of ghosts.”

Nunnally shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, going back to walking down the side of the hallway. She didn’t want to see other ghosts, she barely wanted to see the Demon Emperor. She rubbed her arms, glancing quickly over her shoulder.

She expected to see the Demon Emperor looming over her shoulder, the man reaching out for her. After all, he had been ready to kill the rest of his family before Zero had assassinated him. It would make sense if he came after the rest of them, especially her. She had been hearing that she looked so much like Empress Nunnally all weekend. Nunnally rubbed her arms, glancing warily around the hall. She wasn’t sure that the ghost would be able to tell the difference between the empress and her, which meant that she was likely to become the next victim. Then she would be just another ghost wandering the halls of the Aries Villa.

She jumped as Carine opened another door, the creak of hinges sounding too loud in the hallway. Nunnally edged closer to where her cousins were staring into the room, surprised when they walked into the room.

Nunnally jogged around to the doorway, staring into the room. There was nothing different about the room compared to the other ones, at least not that she could see. The only thing that stood out was the fact that the furniture wasn’t covered like the other rooms. Nunnally stepped inside, reaching out to run her finger over the dresser. It came away covered in dust, Nunnally quickly wiping it off on her skirt.

She stepped away from the dresser, sneezing when her feet stirred up clouds of dust from the old carpet. Nunnally glanced down at the carpet, seeing their tracks in the dust. She carefully stepped across the carpet to the bed, stopping herself before she sat down on the covers, not liking the uniform grey color. Although, now that she was close to the bed she could see some of the designs that had been woven into the canopy.

Nunnally reached out to brush her fingers over one part of the canopy, ignoring the dust that came off in favor of staring at the design. She could see the dim glitter of gold among the thread as well as the royal coat of arms. She traced the shape of the snake before pushing the canopy away. “What is this?”

Neither Carine nor Pollux seemed to hear, they were too busy poking around the room. Pollux had stepped into the in-suite while Carine had ducked into the closet. Nunnally walked around the bed, looking for her own answer. There had to be a reason that the room had been left alone, but Nunnally couldn’t imagine anyone using it now. There wouldn’t be as much dust in the room if it was in constant use, but the house couldn’t just sit on its own.

She rested her hand on the wall, staring at the slightly lighter places on the paint. It was probably where paintings had hung at one point before being taken away, maybe to another part of the house.

Nunnally let her hand drop from the wall, taking a step back. She turned around in time to see Pollux walk out of the bathroom, her cousin looking annoyed. “There’s nothing here.”

“No.” Carine backed out of the closet, waving something over her head. She grinned at the two of them before throwing it on the floor and shining her flashlight on it. “Look at this.”

Nunnally knelt down to stare at the jacket that had been thrown on the floor. She pulled the sleeves away, frowning at the dark stain that covered the bottom of the jacket front and back. She jerked her hand back, glancing up at Carine and Pollux. Both of them seemed to know what they were looking at by the way their eyes widened and Pollux darted forward to grab the jacket.

He held it up to himself before scrambling at the lapel until he managed to flip it back into place. “Look at this!”

Nunnally squinted in the dim light, just able to make out the crest that was on the pin. There was a knight on a black and purple background with gold around the edges. She could just make out a few letters on the edge, T-C-K-N-D. The rest was obscured by a dark brown stain. Nunnally curled her fingers in towards her palm, not wanting to touch the pin.

She glanced up at Pollux as he made a soft sound before whipping the jacket away. “This must be where Lionel Strickland died. They say he was stabbed in the night, but they could never find out who did it. That must be the very bed he died in.”

Pollux and Carine scrambled to their feet to stare at the bed, Nunnally hearing them mutter something about a bloodstain. Nunnally shivered and got to her feet. She glanced at the jacket left on the floor before shaking her head. She didn’t want to stay in the room anymore, not when there could be one of the ghosts haunting it.

She backed away from the jacket and the bed, yelping when she felt something against her back. Nunnally jumped forward before turning around to look at what she had bumped into. She blushed when she realized that she had backed into the wall. Nunnally rubbed the back of her neck, wincing when she saw that Carine and Pollux were staring.

Pollux huffed and strolled over to her. “What’s the matter Nunnally? Did you bump into a ghost or were you actually scared by the wall?”

Nunnally ducked her head as Pollux continued to laugh, sighing when she heard Carine join in. She saw Carine walk over to where Pollux was standing out of the corner of her eye. Nunnally dropped her gaze to the floor, staring at the dust covered pattern. She could still hear the two of them laughing about the wall. She scuffed her foot across the carpet, stopping when it raised a cloud of dust. Nunnally coughed and backed up, waving her hand in front of her face to clear the dust.

She rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear the dust from them. Nunnally looked up at her cousins and blinked, freezing when she realized that there were three people standing by the wall.

Carine and Pollux were there, the two of them patting at the wall and pretending to freak out before laughing, but there was a third person. The other person was taller than the other two and dressed in all white. Nunnally felt her mouth go dry when she saw the stain on the person’s back. It wasn’t dark like the other ones that she had seen in the room, it was blood red.

She took a quick step back, feeling something catch in her throat as the man turned to look at her. She couldn’t meet his gaze but she found herself staring at the bloodstain. Nunnally wasn’t sure if it was because of the light from Carine’s flashlight or if it was part of being a ghost because she was sure that she saw blood leaking out of the wound. She looked down at the floor, expecting to see the blood dripping onto the carpet, but it there was nothing but dust.

Nunnally cleared her throat, relieved when Pollux stopped talking. Her cousin turned around, focusing on her for a moment before his gaze darted over to the ghost that was standing close to them.

Pollux’s mouth dropped open as he stared at the ghost, Nunnally listening as he tried to stumble through words before he just ended in a squeak. A glance showed that Carine wasn’t in any better condition. She was shaking so hard the flashlight was jumping around.

“It’s…it’s…” Pollux snapped his mouth shut when the ghost pivoted to face him.

Nunnally felt like the air was suddenly sucked out of the room. She gasped for air for a moment before it flooded back in, but it was frigid now. Nunnally shivered and stared at the ghost’s shoulders, watching as they straightened. If he had been alive, Nunnally was sure that he would have taken a deep breath.

The room was quiet for a moment, Nunnally sure that the sound of her own breathing was too loud. She felt one breath catch in her throat from the cold.

The sound must have drawn the ghost’s attention before he spoke, his words echoing strangely. “Get out.”

Nunnally wasn’t sure that she could move, not with the cold air or the horror that froze her in place. Her cousins were in no better shape, but they were staring at the ghost’s eyes instead of the horrific wound in the ghost’s back.

The ghost twisted slightly, Nunnally sure she would have to meet its gaze if she looked up. She swallowed and started to look up only to stop when the ghost bellowed, “Get out!”

She ran for the door before she could think about what she was doing. All she knew that she needed to get out of the room.

Nunnally stumbled when she hit the hall, catching herself against the opposite wall and catching her breath. She glanced over her shoulder to see Carine and Pollux dashing out of the room with the ghost just a step behind them. They didn’t bother to look back at her, the two of them rushing for the staircase. Nunnally pushed off the wall and followed them, just barely rushing in front of the ghost.

She felt a gust of cold air, Nunnally ducking instinctively. She didn’t know if the ghost had reached out for her, but she wasn’t about to look behind her. Nunnally ran for the stairs, her breath coming in gasps as she watched her two cousins running ahead of her.

Nunnally reached out a hand when she saw Pollux look back. “Wait for me.”

She wasn’t sure if he really shook his head or if she just imagined it. All she knew was that he turned his head and ran faster, passing Carine before he disappeared around a corner. Nunnally reached helplessly for Carine only to watch as her cousin turned the same corner. She heard the two of them shouting for help as they rushed down the stairs, the light from Carine’s flashlight quickly disappearing as she went around one of the twists in the grand staircase.

Nunnally whimpered and glanced over her shoulder, her eyes widening as she saw the ghost striding after her. It seemed like he was just a step behind her no matter how fast she pushed herself, always reaching out for her. Nunnally screamed and turned back around, staring at the corner.

She could hear Carine and Pollux’s shouts still echoing, but she was sure that she heard other voices. Nunnally didn’t care if they were the voices of the others who had come with them or their parents, she just wanted someone who could make the ghost go away.

She bumped into the corner with her shoulder, Nunnally sobbing at the flare of pain, but she didn’t slow down. She took the stairs two at a time, hopping down towards the first landing.

She could see the bob of Carine’s flashlight out of the corner of her eye as her cousin darted for cover. The sight of the light alone was enough to make her go faster, eager to get to where there was light. Nunnally didn’t think that it would dispel the ghost, but it was better than the darkness that she was running through.

A long creak made her look up, Nunnally feeling her next scream catch in her throat.

The ghost was on the other set of stairs, keeping the same pace as her as she worked down her flight. Nunnally looked up at the ghost’s face, seeing a flash of red in his eyes. She flung up an arm in front of her face, tipping towards the banister as she moved.

She yelped and lowered her arm, grabbing for something that would help her keep her balance in the dark. Her fingers skimmed over the railing just before her foot slipped off the step she was jumping off. She flailed her arms for balance as she tumbled over, Nunnally screaming as she slipped from the step.

She instinctively curled into a ball as she fell, feeling the hard stairs smack into her legs and back as she tumbled down the staircase towards the first landing. The back of her head smacked against the curve of the railing, Nunnally uncurling slightly in pain.

Her lower back hit the edge of the last step, Nunnally hearing something crack just before pain overwhelmed her. She tried to scream, but it felt like all the air had been knocked out of her. Nunnally went limp as she tumbled down the rest of the stairs, her head reeling from the pain.

She fell on her back on the landing, Nunnally trying to arch to get away from the pain, but any movement she made just hurt more. She grabbed at the carpet, sobbing as she tried to drag herself backward.

The cold was still there, creeping along the marble of the staircase and up her legs. Nunnally shivered, gritting her teeth against the involuntary motion. She couldn’t move if she was shivering and she had to get away. But moving hurt too much and her legs weren’t working right. They were so cold that they were nearly numb.

Her arms shook, Nunnally managing to pull herself back a few more inches before she dropped to the ground. She panted for breath, her vision blurring with tears. She knew that she was in danger but she couldn’t think beyond the pain in her back. Nunnally reached out, whimpering when her hand closed around nothing.

“Please…help me.”

She stretched her arm out further, sobbing in relief when she felt someone grab it. She squeezed the hand tightly in hers, feeling the person squeeze back.

Nunnally bit her lip, trying to roll over onto her stomach to get off her back. She felt another hand on her side, guiding her carefully through the move.

As she was lowered onto her stomach she got a glimpse of familiar purple eyes and a kind smile. Nunnally tried to smile back, closing her eyes as the pain overwhelmed her.

“Julius…”


	2. Chapter One: The Demon Emperor

“The old, evil enemy  
now means to deal with us seriously;  
great power and much cunning  
are his cruel armaments;  
on Earth is not his equal.”  
 – _Ein feste Burg_ , Martin Luther

* * *

 Julius stared at the imposing façade of the Aries Villa. It was just a simple thing to get out of the car and look at the house, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He felt safer sitting in the back of the car and gripping the door handle hard enough for his knuckles to go white.

He hissed out a breath, letting go of the handle and sitting back in his seat. Julius ignored the concerned look from Jeremiah, tempted to wave the man off. It was just as tempting to tell Jeremiah to drive off and put the house behind them. Then again, Euphemia had taken the time out of her busy schedule just to help him look at the houses available in Pendragon. Julius wasn’t sure when Euphemia would be able to take the time for them again, especially with her duties as queen.

He glanced up at Jeremiah, almost annoyed when the man gave him a shrug. He had hoped that Jeremiah would have something to say or some advice, but the man was silent. Julius sighed and opened the door, slipping out of the car.

It almost felt like some kind of petty revenge to motion for Jeremiah to stay with the car, but Julius didn’t want Jeremiah tagging along after him. He wanted to see the house for himself. Julius took a deep breath and started for the front of the Aries Villa, keeping a close watch on everything that was going on.

There were people rushing around at the top of the driveway, Julius watching as six people struggled with a trunk. Another group was hauling a rolled up tapestry out of the house. He could see a line of people working their way to the front door with other things, all of them being loaded down into trucks. One truck was already lumbering down the long driveway, probably back to Pendragon to deliver its load to one of the museums.

Since the death of King Richard vi Britannia the public had been obsessed with whatever they could find about the king. Julius had read innumerable articles about how the crown passing to Euphemia had meant the end of an era. They were all full of nonsense, wondering if Euphemia would be able to hold up when compared to the rest of the vi Britannia line, like they had all forgotten about everything that Emperor Lance vi Britannia had done. The newspapers also seemed to have forgotten the years she had spent helping with disasters around the world. As far as Julius was concerned, Euphemia was the only good choice for the throne.

The change in regime had also led to the clearing of Aries Villa, something that Julius assumed that had to be done. It was just like Euphemia to take advantage of the moment. He was sure that she had plans for the grand manor if he decided that it wasn’t for him and Nunnally. Julius was sure that he would read about the villa being used as a hospital for veterans or as an orphanage, just like he was sure that there would be more complaints about Euphemia’s decision.

He shook his head and made his way up the driveway, careful to give the museum teams a wide berth. He didn’t want to get in their way, not when he wasn’t doing anything but looking.

Julius walked close to the porch, curling his fingers around the wrought-iron railing. From what he could see, the Aries Villa didn’t look too bad, it just looked crowded with all the people rushing around. The worst he could think of was old, the whole mansion done in the older style of Britannia, back when there still had been a noble class. It wouldn’t have fit in with the rest of the buildings in Pendragon but, as it was sitting in Old Pendragon, it matched. There were plenty of old style revival buildings, all of them back from when Emperor Lance had tried to bring back the nobility. To Julius’ knowledge, most of the old mansions had been reclaimed by the government and converted to other purposes; only the Aries Villa remained as royal residence. Julius didn’t know why King Richard had thought to keep it, especially considering that he had rarely come to the place. From what Julius could see, he had only used it as storage space.

He tipped his head back to stare at the windows, searching for some sign of strangeness in the place, but all he could see were people rushing through the upper floors or scrubbing the windows.

He shook his head at his own foolishness. He doubted that there was anything supernatural about the building, people just wanted there to be something. Julius was sure that there were plenty of old houses in Britannia with crazy stories attached to them, it was just something that people did. Still, that didn’t explain what his sister swore that she had seen that night. Julius had never known Nunnally to lie, and he didn’t think she would start with her visit to Aries Villa.

Julius sighed and stepped up onto the porch, peering into the front hall. It was a grand enough looking place, but he couldn’t help his gaze from moving to the first landing on the grand staircase.

Nunnally had been found there fifteen years ago. Julius hadn’t gone out with his mother and the others when Maribelle had come running back with the news that Nunnally was hurt. He had only heard about it in the morning when he had woken up and found Jeremiah waiting for him in the main room of the suite.

He bit his lip, stepping into the building. Julius carefully stepped around the furniture lined up in the entrance. He took a moment to glance at one of the tags attached to one of the chairs, the corner of his mouth twitching up when he saw that it was going to the Royal Museum of Pendragon. He didn’t know what they would do with a chair, especially when he was sure that it wasn’t important. Julius shook his head and kept moving towards the stairs.

He stopped at the base of the grand staircase, staring up at the landing. The story that Nunnally had told had been almost too fantastic to believe. Julius knew that their mother had never believed it. Marianne had said that it was a combination of pain and the medication that she had been on. She might have seen something that had spooked her, but it hadn’t been real, it had just been added to the confused story that Nunnally believed was the truth.

Julius would have agreed with her if he hadn’t spent so much time listening to Nunnally repeat the same story over and over against with the same conviction in her voice. There was something in that story that was true, something that couldn’t just be what Marianne said. After all, if it had just been all in Nunnally’s head that didn’t explain why Pollux had gone insane after going inside the villa.

He rubbed one of the lions carved into the pillar. Now that he was in the mansion he could tell that there was definitely something strange about it. It might just be all of the stories that he heard, or because the place looked so imposing, but there was something off about the place.

Julius shook his head and stepped away from the staircase. Part of the reason he had come out to the Aries Villa was to settle the nagging doubts in the back of his own head. He had needed to see the mansion for himself before he could settle the differences between what his mother had believed and what Nunnally had sworn had happened. He had never thought that Nunnally would agree to live in the place that had led to her losing the use of her legs, but it wouldn’t hurt to look. Besides, there were plenty of other places that were closer to the Britannian Senate House and, therefore, closer to Euphemia. That was the whole point of them moving in the first place.

He turned to look back at the door, watching the seemingly endless flow of people towards the door with all of their objects. From what he could see, it looked like the project was half done anyway, meaning that Nunnally would have to live in the royal palace until the mansion was clear. Julius sighed, picking at the sleeve of his shirt before shaking his head.

Euphemia hadn’t shown up yet, not that he expected her to be on time. There were plenty of things to keep the Queen of Britannia occupied, not that Julius would hold her accountable for focusing on any of them. King Richard might have hauled Britannia back from the brink of becoming an empire again, but not everyone was happy. Things had stayed quiet while Richard had been on the throne but the factions were starting to push with their new queen. Julius didn’t envy Euphemia’s task in keeping Britannia together, especially while the whole world was watching. He had seen what the conflict had done to Nunnally, and his sister was only an aide to a Senator.

Julius watched a group of people trying to haul a desk out of the front doors. He rolled his eyes as they struggled to turn the huge thing. With the way they were making progress, Euphemia might be showing him around an empty house. The museums might just have claimed everything in the villa, and Julius was more than willing to let them have it all. There was nothing in the house that interested him, not when most of it was probably from Emperor Lance. If he wanted a reminder of the great empire of Britannia he could just listen to whatever idiot was speaking in front of the Senate.

He turned away, wincing when he heard what sounded like the desk hitting the door. Julius decided not to turn around, not wanting to see what the team had done with it.

He found himself looking up the staircase, his gaze moving beyond the landing to the second floor that he could see from the bottom of the grand staircase. Julius caught himself looking for someone floating by, something more like the official portraits of the royal family than the museum teams that he could see. He shook his head, quickly climbing the stairs. He was letting the stories about the villa and what Nunnally had told him get to his head. The only way he could shake it off was to check out the house himself. He wouldn’t go too far, just to visit the spots that Nunnally had mentioned. He would leave the rest of the house for Euphemia to show him.

Julius gave the door one more glance before walking up the stairs. He skirted the edges of the landing, not wanting to risk stepping on the spot that Nunnally had fallen on. Julius eyed the landing, some part of him almost expecting to see the impression of his sister on the ground. He shivered at the thought and started climbing the second flight of stairs, staying close to the curved railing.

He ran his fingers over the railing, watching as someone went running across the second floor. Julius thought he saw them nod at him, but he couldn’t tell, not when they turned the next corner. He could hear them shouting to the rest of their team, Julius shaking his head as he heard something about disassembling a bed. Just under that conversation he could hear something about a vacuum, the two conversations running together.

Julius reached the top of the stairs, giving the hallway that the conversations were coming from a quick look before making up his mind to turn the other direction. He didn’t think the room that Nunnally had talked about was there. Whenever she had told the story, the room had been close to the staircase.

At least it would be easy to find, all of the doors were open, probably to air the rooms or to mark which ones had been stripped. Julius ran his finger along the edge of a door before shaking his head. He didn’t think that the museum teams would spare any room, especially with the wealth of artifacts available for the picking. He would just have to go with what he remembered Nunnally telling him. It had been an ornate room with a canopied bed decorated with the coat of arms of Britannia. Considering that Emperor Lance had once used the Aries Villa heavily, Julius was sure that he would find plenty of rooms decorated in the same manner.

He sighed and continued down the hall, taking the time to peek into every room. Some of them had been stripped completely bare, with the carpets rolled up and placed to one side. A line of plastic tape had been stretched across those doors, Julius seeing the light gleam off of freshly scrubbed floors. Most of the rooms were still furnished, although the linens were gone. Julius assumed that they had been taken to be cleaned before they were returned to the rooms. It also made it impossible for him to tell what room Nunnally had been in before she had made her run for the stairs. He flicked his fingers at the nearest door before stepping into the middle of the hallway.

The only way he would be able to find the room that Nunnally talked about would be to call his sister and ask her, but that would lead to too many questions. Julius didn’t want her to think that he didn’t believe her, not after fifteen years of promising that he didn’t think that she was insane for believing that she had been chased by a ghost.

His other options weren’t too good either. There was a chance that Pollux was having a lucid day, but there was every chance that Julius wouldn’t get an answer from his cousin. Carine probably wouldn’t talk to him, not when Nunnally and Euphemia were openly working against her and her faction. Euphemia wouldn’t be any help, she had just found Nunnally after hearing the screams. He cursed under his breath, tempted to just turn around and wait outside. Euphemia would be around within a few minutes and she could guide him around the house. If not, she was sure to contact him. Then, he could leave and forget about the Aries Villa.

He pulled out his phone, checking for messages. There was still nothing, which was strange for Euphemia. Julius frowned and tapped a finger against the side of the phone before slipping it back into his pocket. He would give his cousin a few more minutes before calling to talk to her. Julius didn’t care if they would have to put off the tour until a later date. Maybe by then there would be other places in Pendragon and they could forget about the villa.

Julius strode down the hall, still checking the rooms out of curiosity. There was still a chance that he could find the room just by luck, but Julius wasn’t so sure. He was fifteen years too late for his chance to try and find what Nunnally had seen.

The last two rooms on the hall were huge, Julius staring at the length of wall without open doors. He took a step back, peeking into one of the rooms at the end. It was a large room, one that had probably been used by Emperor Lance or by one of his close friends. Julius stepped into the room, running his hand along the wall as he stepped on the carpet.

Little puffs of dust rose from the carpet as he walked over it, Julius glancing down and shaking his head. The cleaning crews hadn’t gotten this far down the hall, not that Julius could blame them. The Aries Villa was a huge place. He glanced at the bed, not surprised to see that the linens had been stripped from the room. It was just a room just like all the others, just a bit larger.

He huffed and drummed his fingers against the wall, surprised by the hollow sound that came from the wall. Julius turned and stared at the wall, knocking against it and listening carefully.

There was definitely a space behind the wall, a large one by the sound of it. Julius frowned and walked along the length of the wall, continuing to knock. He raised an eyebrow when the hollow sound went all the way down the length of the wall. For a moment, he was tempted to turn and go back the other way to check the length of the wall again, but he remained where he was. There was nothing to be gained by picking out the secret room, especially when there was no way to get into it. All that he could tell from his side of the wall was how big the secret room was. Besides, Julius was sure that it was just a safe room for the people in the house. Emperor Lance might have enjoyed his parties more than actually running the empire, but the man hadn’t been stupid enough to believe that he was beloved. The villa was probably full of secret passages and safe rooms for the emperor.

Julius huffed and turned around. He froze when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. For a moment, he thought that it was a ghost, Julius pressing himself back against the wall. He held himself still before he realized what he was doing. He shook his head and pushed himself away from the wall.

There were no such thing as ghosts, it was all just people overreacting or wanting something to be scared of. What he had seen run past was probably just one of the workers rushing to their next task. The mansion was full of them. Besides, Julius was sure that ghosts were supposed to make the whole atmosphere change and nothing had happened when he person had run past.

He stepped out into the hall, jumping when he heard a door slam. Julius looked down the hall, staring at the line of open doors. As far as he could see, all of the doors in the hallway hadn’t been closed, which just left the end of the hall.

Julius turned to look down at the end of the hall with a frown. It was a dead end with only one small door on the left, and it looked firmly shut. The door was the only place that someone could have rushed into and then slammed, but there was no indication what the door led to.

He reached for his pocket before jerking his hand away. He still had the time to poke around, and checking one door wouldn’t hurt. It would bother him if he didn’t.

Julius walked over to the door, yanking it open. It took him a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior, Julius staring into the small room. He sighed when he realized it was a set of stairs, Julius tipping his head back to stare up the spiral staircase. He winced when he saw that one of the stairs didn’t seem to be sitting right. Julius shook his head and went to shut the door, pausing before he shut it all the way.

He stared at the door jamb before throwing the door open again. Julius sighed as he stepped into the cramped stairway. He gave them one last look before starting to climb.

Julius tried to ignore the creak of the stairs under his feet. He bit his lip as he felt one give slightly before he stepped off of it. He grabbed at the railing, groaning when it wiggled under his hand. The while affair felt like it was going to crumble underneath his feet. It made him want to turn around and rush back to where he was sure the floor wouldn’t give out from under him. If the stairs were so bad, Julius didn’t want to think about what shape the attic would be in. Either way, climbing up to the attic was a stupid idea, but he couldn’t get himself to turn back.

He didn’t know why he was bothering beyond a vague feeling that he should check out the attic. The attic might be the best place to find Nunnally’s ghost. After all, the attic seemed to be the place most often haunted in stories. A quick poke around wouldn’t be too bad, but it wouldn’t be the real reason he was going up to the attic. There was some urge just in the back of his mind, one that Julius couldn’t really name.

He hopped awkwardly over the listing stair, skittering over to the edge of the stairs closest to the wall as the felt the next stair give dangerously. Julius swallowed and inched along the wall for the last few stairs. He didn’t give himself the time to enjoy the landing under his feet, Julius reaching for the door into the attic and pushing it open.

The door creaked open, Julius peering in as the door revealed the tangle of junk in the attic. He could see a myriad of trunks and a boxes stacked on top of each other. He was almost surprised to see that they were still there considering the voracity of the museums. Then again, the workers might be wary about climbing the creaky staircase, even with the wealth of artifacts that were stored in the attic.

Julius eased the door shut behind him, placing his feet carefully as he moved through the attic. Even with all of the junk someone had taken the time to lay everything out in neat rows, making it easy for Julius to make his way across the floor. The clear space was a blessing because it meant that he could look at what had been tucked away from the grasping hands of the museum staff. By his left leg he could see an ornate chest, something that would have probably traveled with the royal family. On top of it was a small box, Julius leaning over to open it up.

He shook his head at the assortment of jewels, reaching in to twist a ring around before jerking his hand back. It looked like the jewelry that Empress Nunnally had worn during her reign, Julius sure that he saw the famous necklace that Empress Nunnally had worn from the day that she had married her husband until the day that he had died.

He carefully shut the box, not wanting to leave the jewels open to the light for too much longer. They weren’t the crown jewels, but they were just as valuable. He could just imagine the backlash from the royal family if they discovered that one of their distant cousins destroyed some of their history.

Julius huffed and stepped away from the jewelry box. He continued moving through the aisles of the attic. He slowed down when he saw a strange set up in one corner of the attic.

The careful aisle structure stopped abruptly to make room for a sectioned off part of the attic. Lines were nailed into the walls of the attic with mismatched sheets strung across them to make a private area.

Julius frowned and made his way over to the sectioned off area. He reached out to push one of the sheets out of the way, raising an eyebrow when he saw the cot and the side table that had been set down. The two pieces of furniture looked new, and the lack of dust on them meant that someone was using them constantly. It could mean that the museum had set someone up to keep an eye on the artifacts that were still there, or someone else was using the villa. Julius doubted that someone could sneak in, especially with the constant flow of people in and out of the building, but he could be wrong. There were bound to be plenty of other ways into the mansion, which meant plenty of chances to sneak in.

He leaned over to look at something under the bed, getting a glimpse of yellow before the sound of someone shouting made him turn. He let the sheet drop back into place as he listened carefully. Julius wanted to laugh at himself when he realized that it was just someone from the floor below, probably because they had dropped something. He shook his head and turned away from the jerry-rigged bedroom, his attention caught by a flutter of white.

Julius sucked in a quick breath, staring at the white dress that was set up on a stand and carefully covered. He had seen the empress’ wedding dress many times, but that had been on television. Seeing it in person was something else. Julius walked slowly towards the dress, his eyes widening when he saw the other clothes that had been set up in a similar fashion.

He had thought that no one had been up into the attic, but someone had. There was no reason why anyone would display iconic dresses and outfits in an attic. Julius stepped closer, squinting to see any kind of tagging system, but he couldn’t find anything. Still, some museum had to have claimed the clothes, he couldn’t think of a museum that would turn down Empress Nunnally’s wedding dress or the old uniform of the Knight of One. After them were a series of knight uniforms, Julius shaking his head at the sight of them. They were all nearly pristine and ornate, some of them still with their medals attached. He reached out to one of them only to pull his hand back. He didn’t want to damage any of them, not when the museums were bound to come after anyone who dared damage their greatest haul.

Julius continued walking down the aisle, looking at the lines of knight uniforms only to come to a stop in front of a purple suit. He stared at the outfit, his eyes widening as he followed the cut of the cape up to the iconic collar. Julius took a deep breath before stepping forward, shaking his head in amazement.

Zero was well known the world over, a constant presence at the monarch’s side. Their presence was a reminder to the world that there was every chance that another Demon Emperor would come around, and what had to be done to ensure peace. After all, everything had nearly fallen apart a mere sixty-five years after Lelouch vi Britannia had been killed.

Julius was sure that all the other Zero outfits were already on display, or at least the ones that marked the change from something with more flare to something more practical. The uniform that Julius was looking at was all flare, the suit lacking the bulletproof reinforcement that Zero’s uniform now always had. Since it lacked that, Julius was sure that he was looking at one of the originals. It couldn’t be the original because it wasn’t one whole piece, but it was a suit more in line with the old Knight of the Round uniform. Julius was sure that it was the second Zero’s or even the third if that theory was to be believed.

He crouched down to look at the gloves that were carefully draped over the wire of the mannequin. He couldn’t see anything too different about them, Julius frowning and scooting closer.

He knew for a fact that Zero’s outfit had changed after the assassination of the Demon Emperor, but he didn’t know why. That outfit was on display, Julius knew that for a fact. The changes had been small, the height of the collar had gone down a fraction, places for holsters and other weapons had been sneakily added into the suit. The suit Julius was looking at seemed to be more form fitting. There was no way to hide anything in the suit and Julius was sure that the collar of the cape was too high.

Julius frowned and tipped his head to the side, his eyes widening when he saw the bit of discoloration on them. The gloves themselves were too dark for him to really tell what the stain was, but he was almost sure that it was blood. He was sure that someone would demand testing once he pointed it out, but Julius was sure that he was right.

He stood up, intending to look over the collar only to find himself looking into someone eyes. He screamed and stumbled backwards, crashing into a pile of boxes. Julius reached out for something to catch himself, managing to find a box that didn’t tumble over.

He stared at the woman, watching her just as carefully as she was watching him. From what he could tell, she didn’t look like a ghost. Julius was sure that there weren’t any female ghosts haunting the Aries Villa; Nunnally hadn’t mentioned one. He pushed himself upright, narrowing his eyes in a glare.

The woman didn’t seem to notice, she just shoved the stand with Zero’s outfit to one side, stepping into the space that it had once occupied. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I-” Julius shook his head. “What are you doing here?”

The woman glanced away from him, Julius almost shocked by the way her expression went from watchful to worried. The woman looked around the attic before finally focusing on him again. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Why?”

She didn’t answer, stepping forward and tugging on his arm. Julius went with the pull, too shocked to resist. It was only when she pulled him to his feet that he finally tried to jerk away from her. “What are you doing?”

“You shouldn’t be here. You have to get out before-” Her gaze darted to something just over his shoulder, Julius watching as her eyes widened and her jaw went slack. Her hand slipped from his arm, Julius glancing down at his wrist before he was shoved to one side. “Get out of here.”

“I don’t-”

“Get out! Hurry!”

The panic on her face was enough to get him to nod. He turned on his heel and meant to run out of the attic, but he barely got started before a person appeared in front of him.

Julius found himself staring into a familiar face. He took a quick step back, breathing quickly as a chill set into his bones. The person in white stepped forward, Julius not having time to react before the ghost was nose-to-nose with him. Julius shrunk back, trying to fight the cold that was all around him, but he kept getting drawn into the eerie purple eyes.

 “Lelouch, no!”

The ghost smiled, Julius seeing red flash across his eyes just before everything went black.

* * *

Nunnally jerked her head up as she heard someone running down the hall, looking away from her brother. She breathed a sigh of relief when the door opened and Euphemia rushed in. Her cousin didn’t bother to shut the door behind her, rushing over to the bed. She knelt down beside Nunnally, reaching out to hold the one hand not occupied with Julius’ hand.

She relaxed a bit as Euphemia squeezed her hand, glancing up as she heard someone coming. Nunnally watched as Zero peered in the room, unable to tell what they were thinking behind their mask. They looked into the room for a while before nodding and withdrawing. A moment later the door slid shut, leaving the two of them alone.

Nunnally was grateful for the gesture. No one had bothered them so far, but she was sure that someone was bound to come looking for the queen. The presence of Zero outside the door would deter anyone who wanted to try and talk to Euphemia. Any business of the country could wait, at least for a while longer. Nunnally felt that she deserved to be selfish considering what had happened.

Euphemia squeezed her hand again. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m alright.” Nunnally attempted to smile, not sure that she really convinced Euphemia. She swallowed, taking a moment to take a deep breath. “I’m doing alright.”

Euphemia gave her a long look, like she was trying to read her mind. It was a look that Euphemia had perfected over the year. Nunnally had seen it used on other senators, but she had never thought that it would be directed at her.

She sighed and nodded. “I’ve been better, but I’m alright.”

That seemed to be the answer that Euphemia had been looking for. She stood up and went to sit on the edge of the bed. Euphemia let their joined hands rest in her lap as she looked over at Julius, Nunnally following her gaze.

Her brother was tucked into bed, breathing evenly as he continued to sleep on. The doctor that had looked him over hadn’t said when Julius would wake up. At least Julius didn’t look distressed and he wasn’t badly injured. That was enough to satisfy her for the time being. What she really wanted was Julius to wake up so she would know if her brother was alright.

Euphemia patted her hand, drawing her gaze back to her cousin. Nunnally leaned back in her chair, rubbing her thumb over Julius’ knuckles. Nunnally closed her eyes, trying to center herself, but it was hard. It had only been two months since their mother had died, and she wasn’t ready to have her brother die. She swallowed, pushing back the thought as she opened her eyes again. “The doctor said it was an epileptic fit.”

Euphemia frowned. “But he hasn’t had one in his life.”

“I know, and I told the doctor that. He said that’s the signs he was seeing. But he said to have Julius checked by a doctor more familiar with him as soon as he feels well enough to move.” Nunnally glanced over at where she had left her phone on the bedside table.

She had called their family doctor as soon as the other doctor had left the room. It would mean a trip back to the east coast, but Nunnally thought it would be worth it. Something bad had happened to her brother and she wanted to get to the bottom of it before they did anything. She wanted to go back to living together, because it had been comfortable, but she wouldn’t do it at the expense of her brother’s health. They had managed for years and Nunnally was sure that they could manage for another year or so for Julius’ sake.

Her brother wouldn’t like it, but Nunnally was prepared to put her foot down. He had already sacrificed enough for their family, Nunnally was not about to let him sacrifice his health as well. She was twenty-five, old enough to take care of herself without her brother hovering over her shoulder. It would take a bit of convincing, but she was sure that she would be able to wear Julius down.

She let go of Euphemia’s hand to brush the hair back from her brother’s face. She smiled when he mumbled something and shifted in the bed. He looked more at peace than before, something that eased the tight knot of worry in her stomach. Nunnally brushed his bangs back into place before sitting back.

Euphemia leaned forward to pat her shoulder. “He’s going to be fine.”

She nodded, leaning into Euphemia for a moment. She might be able to take care of herself, but that didn’t mean that she would turn away support when she needed it. Nunnally closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Julius was fine, that was a small victory in itself. And a victory meant that she had time to regroup before pushing on to the next problem. She rubbed her thumb across Julius’ knuckles, reassuring herself that her brother was still there. Nunnally took a few minutes to breathe before opening her eyes again.

“Why was he at the Aries Villa?”

Euphemia looked away, Nunnally raising an eyebrow at her cousin’s sudden reluctance to answer. She leaned forward in her chair, trying to catch Euphemia’s gaze. “Euphy?”

“We were going to look around at the houses in the area.”

“But the Aries Villa.”

“I’m having it cleaned out. The caretaker requested it and I couldn’t say no.” Euphemia reached back to pull her hair out of its ponytail. “The place was stuffed to the gills with everything that the royal family didn’t want. I thought it would be a good time to go through it and let the museums take their share. Aside from the bare minimum of furniture for the rooms, the rest I wanted to give to charity. I haven’t decided what I wanted to do with the house, I was delaying it until the house was done. Julius had said that he wanted to look at it, but he didn’t tell me why. I never thought that he would actually suggest that the two of you live there.”

Nunnally bit her lip, looking back at her brother. Julius had been taking the search for their new place seriously, which made his trip to the villa even more confusing. She was sure that he didn’t believe in ghosts, but he wouldn’t have made her go back to the old mansion let alone live in it. Julius going to the mansion didn’t make sense, not even if Euphemia was going to be there. She glanced up at Euphemia’s face, almost relieved to see her cousin looking just as confused as she felt.

She rested her arm on the armrest of her wheelchair, curling her fingers around it. She rubbed her fingers over the controls of the wheelchair, stopping before her nervous habit made the wheelchair rock forward. Nunnally met Euphemia’s gaze again, feeling a thrill at the look of concentration on her cousin’s face.

It was like they had been before Euphemia had become Queen of Britannia, the two of them working together to solve problems. The only difference was that they were working on something closer to home instead of something that would affect hundreds of people.

Nunnally smoothed her fingers over the edge of the armrest. “I was told that the staff found him in a room on the second floor. I…I think it was the one where we saw the ghost. I asked them to count, but they couldn’t be sure. But I just feel it, Euphy.”

Euphemia nodded, tapping her fingers against her leg. “Julius just told me that he wanted to meet me at the Aries Villa. I was late, but I told him that I would be.”

She leaned across to grab the phone that was waiting on the table. She flicked it open and scrolled to the text messages before turning it to face Nunnally. Nunnally stared at the message, nodding when she had read it.

Euphemia snapped the phone shut, letting it drop onto the bed beside her. “I was on my way out when I heard what had happened. He must have decided to look around the villa when he figured out that I was going to be late. But why would he want to look at the villa? And why was he in the room where you found the ghost?”

“Because I told him about it.” Nunnally tensed in her chair, her eyes going wide. “I told him about it because I was relieved that someone would listen to me. Euphy, what if he went there to prove that I was right?”

“I thought he always believed you.”

“He did. But he would want to prove it to himself.” Nunnally tried to fight back the feeling of dread that grew at the thought.

She had never doubted the fact that Julius had believed her, but it had never crossed her mind that he would try to prove some part of her story true. Marianne hadn’t believed her and the others that had known about the night in the Aries Villa had just taken it as another one of the strange stories about the place. As far as Nunnally knew, there hadn’t been any point to Julius trying to prove her right, except for his own reason. She had always suspected that her brother had only believed it because they had never lied to each other, but Julius was far too rational to believe in something like a ghost. And that had gotten him hurt.

Nunnally looked up at Euphemia, opening her mouth to speak when the door slid open. She rocked back in her chair, getting out of Euphemia’s way as her cousin stood up from the bed. Nunnally shifted her wheelchair slightly to see the door better, not surprised to see Zero looking into the room.

“Your majesty, the caretaker of Aries Villa has come to see you.”

Euphemia nodded and sat down on the bed. “Show her in.”

Zero stepped out of the way, allowing a young woman carrying a folder into the room. The woman hesitated by the door as it closed, watching the two of them before giving an awkward bow. “Your majesty.”

Euphemia shook her head. “We can skip the formalities for now.”

The woman nodded, Nunnally feeling a chill run up her spine when she focused on Julius. Nunnally fought the irrational urge to lean over her brother to protect him, the urge disappearing as quickly as it came when the woman tipped her head towards the bed.

“He looks better. Better than when I found him at least.” The woman walked closer, staring down at Julius for a moment before she offered her free hand to Nunnally. “I’m Lucille Clarissant.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Nunnally Kingsley.” She saw Lucille’s eyebrow twitch at that, the woman probably recognizing her from her place work with Senator Maldini. “Thank you for helping my brother.”

Lucille shrugged. “It wasn’t a problem. I was just worried about him. The last thing the house needs is another story about someone dying in it.”

Nunnally winced at the callous statement, but she couldn’t argue with it. The more stories about the house the more people would sneak in, and the more people that would end up like Lelouch or Pollux. Nunnally couldn’t just turn a blind eye to that, not when she had experienced the same thing.

She carefully slipped her hand from Julius’, smiling down at her brother before turning her wheelchair around to face Euphemia and Lucille. “We have to do something. That ghost is too dangerous to leave there. What happens if you decided to use that place, Euphy?”

Euphemia nodded, but she didn’t look too sure. “But what do we do?”

Lucille cleared her throat and opened the folder that she was carrying. Nunnally watched as the woman rooted around in the papers there before drawing out what looked like a newspaper article. Lucille offered the article to the two of them, Euphemia the one to pick it up. The woman nodded, Nunnally noticing the way that her fingers lingered over the other papers in the folder. She only stayed there for a moment before she shut the folder again.

The caretaker nodded at the article. “The sightings have been getting more frequent, so I’ve been looking into ways to take care of the problem. I believe that this is the most likely way, but only with the proper approval.”

Nunnally thought that there was something strange in Lucille’s tone of voice, but she didn’t have long to think about it. Euphemia grabbed onto her sleeve and tugged for her attention. Nunnally gave Lucille one last look before turning her attention to the article.

The picture grabbed her attention first. Two people were standing in front of an old Victorian-style building. The black and white photo made it impossible for her to pick out what color it might have been, but the building looked impressive with its twin porches. With the two people posing in front of the house, it almost looked like a family vacation photo. Nunnally glanced at the man in the photo before focusing on the article itself.

**GHOST FIGHTING SUPERSTARS IN AUSTRALIA  
Duo Visits the Famous Monte Cristo Homestead**

_Famed for their multiple successes, paranormal experts Suzaku Kururugi and Kaguya Sumeragi have come to Australia to tackle the ghosts of the Monte Christo Homestead. Well known for their work with the ghosts in Shinjuku and Aokigahara the two earned international fame when they participated in the clearing of the Ancient Ram Inn. Further work done in the Huguan Huiguan Opera House and the Waverly Hills Sanatorium secured their fame and kept them in on the top ever since._

_The two cousins stand out with their traditional Japanese methods of dealing with spirits originating from a family history of working within the Bureau of Onmyō. While they constantly update themselves, the two always fall back on tradition and their focus to help the ghosts achieve a state of peace instead of forcibly expelling them._

_“We prefer to help them along out of kindness,” says Kaguya Sumeragi. “They often remain and act out because of confusion or fear. If we can correct that, half the problem is taken care of. Most just want to find peace, and it would be cruel to deny them that after all that they have suffered.”_

_Their strategy will certainly be put to the test during their work. Pain and suffering seem to be the fate of anyone who enters the Monte Cristo Homestead..._

Nunnally looked back up at Lucille, her heart beating faster. She had just thought about getting rid of the ghost of Aries Villa, but not really about what to do to solve the problem. She had never thought that the solution would be dumped into her lap.

The caretaker just shrugged and reached over to take the article back from Euphemia. “I’ve been thinking about this problem for a while.”

“But why not just exorcise the ghost?”

Lucille shrugged in answer to Euphemia’s question. “It might be harder to force him out of the place he’s lived for a hundred years. And maybe I’ve gotten used to having him around.”

She paused to look at the article, Nunnally noticing how her gaze lingered on the man in the photograph before she put it back in her folder. The folder was tucked under her arm, Lucille focusing on the both of them. “Should I take this as permission to contact them?”

Euphemia nodded, but Nunnally reached out to touch her cousin’s arm. Euphemia looked shocked, like she expected Nunnally to tell her that she wasn’t going to go along with the plan, like Nunnally had the authority to tell Euphemia what to do. Officially, the Aries Villa belonged to the monarch and Nunnally was just a distant relation, but that didn’t stop her from feeling some kind of connection to the place. Both her and her brother had been attacked by the ghost and it had been the place where she had lost the use of her legs.

She patted Euphemia’s arm before sending her wheelchair forward. “I want to go and meet with them. Someone should and you’ll be busy with the villa and Euphemia will be busy with Britannia. I’m the only one free.”

It was stretching the truth, but Nunnally felt like she had to be there. The Senate would be out of session for a few more weeks, and Julius was sure to wake up. The only struggle that she would have would be sending Julius back east to recover while she went off to Japan. Her brother wouldn’t like being left behind, but it was the only thing that she could do.

Euphemia stared at her in shock, but Lucille just nodded. “I’ll give them fair warning.”

Lucille turned and walked out of the room, Nunnally shocked by her brazen exit. It might not have been the heyday of the empire nor was Euphemia one of the monarchs that demanded that all the proper forms be followed, but it was common courtesy to wait until the monarch dismissed someone. From the quick glance that she caught of them, Zero seemed to be just as shocked. Nunnally saw the mask swing to face them before Zero moved out of the way of the door.

Nunnally’s attention was taken away from the door when Euphemia crouched beside her. “You know that you don’t have to do this. The villa isn’t your responsibility.”

“But it’s yours, and you won’t have the time. Wouldn’t it be easier to have someone you trust on this?” Nunnally smiled. “We agreed that something had to be done and I want to see this through.”

Euphemia sighed, but she didn’t protest. She glanced over at where Julius was still unconscious, Nunnally unable to tell what she was thinking. Euphemia turned back to look at her before Nunnally had the chance to ask her anything. Her cousin nodded and gave her a smile. “Just promise to keep me up to date.”

“I promise.” Nunnally looped her pinkie through Euphemia’s for a moment before she pulled away. She carefully guided her wheelchair back to Julius’ side, resting her hands on the bed. She heard Euphemia get up, but she didn’t look away from Julius.

She looked up as Euphemia crossed to the door, the two of them sharing a smile as Euphemia slipped out. Nunnally heard the bustle of the hall, shaking her head when she heard someone calling for Euphemia. She didn’t get the chance to see who it was, the door sliding shut, leaving her alone with her brother again.

Nunnally sighed and slumped back in her wheelchair, watching her brother carefully. Julius didn’t seem to be showing signs of waking up, which meant a long vigil. Nunnally shifted in place, getting comfortable. She wasn’t about to leave her brother’s side, not when he had set by her bedside for hours while she was in the hospital. It was only fair that she returned the favor.

* * *

C.C. trudged through the Avalon Cemetery, sticking to the paths that kept her away from the tombs of the royals. The tombs of Empress Nunnally and her consort were always popular, as was the tomb of Prince Arthur, the king that Britannia had almost had. The tombs of King Richard and Emperor Lance vi Britannia were just as popular for the people who had supported the return of the nobles or those who wanted the nobility gone for good. With Euphemia ascending to the throne, the grave of Cornelia li Britannia had become increasingly popular. People lined up to see the great great grandmother of the current empress, nearly covering the grave with flowers and trinkets.

She paused to watch a tour group wander through the path to the others side of her. The woman leading the group was going on about the royal family and getting it all wrong. C.C. shook her head and tucked her hands into her pockets. There was no point in correcting the guide, not when people preferred the history as they had learned it. New additions and difficult truths were never welcome. People continued to be strange, no matter how much time had passed.

Although, Lelouch would have been pleased with the warped history that they insisted on sticking to.

The thought of Lelouch brought a smile to her face despite the space of years. Lelouch was the reason she was in the cemetery, it was part of her yearly pilgrimage to check up on him. CC. didn’t quite know why she kept coming back to the mausoleum. She had come when Nunnally had first built the place, she had been one of the few who had been there. And then she had just kept coming back when she had the time.

She followed the path deeper into the cemetery. It led her back into the heavily overgrown section, where bushes and trees starting to encroach. C.C. lost sight of the tour groups, glad that the sound of people talking had stopped. That just left her with the silence that should be in cemeteries. C.C. ducked under the branches of a tree, nodding when she saw the small mausoleum that had been built at the end of the path.

It was a modest thing, a reflection of what the empire would allow a grieving sister to make. It was far more than what Lelouch had expected, she was sure of that.

She gave the walls a quick look, catching sight of a bit of graffiti that was on the mausoleum. C.C. shook her head and circled around to the entrance to the building. She wasn’t surprised that some teenager had taken it upon themselves to deface the tomb of the Demon Emperor. There had been times that the entire mausoleum had been covered in graffiti. For once, it looked like the cemetery staff was ahead of the game.

C.C. stepped into the cool of the mausoleum, glancing around for more desecration or destruction, but nothing caught her eye. There was just the inscription that Nunnally had chosen and the effigy that she’d had carved. She came around to stare at the caved sculpture, looking down on Lelouch’s face.

He looked calm for once, not at all like how she remembered him. The Lelouch she knew had alternated between frantic energy and an almost silent state. Watching Lelouch attempt to live his last days without anyone had worn on both her and Suzaku. He had figured it out in the end, not that it had left him much time.

C.C. shook her head, smiling to herself. She leaned forward to touch the effigy’s arm. She sat in silence for a while before pulling a folded crane out of her pocket. She held it in her palm, giving it a critical look over. It wasn’t as elegant as it could have been, the crane bent and crumpled in places. The piece of newspaper had been folded over many times before she had made it into the crane and the extra folds were very visible. Still, it was a good crane, far better than getting flowers that would have wilted by the time she had come around to visit. She placed the crane on the effigy’s chest, sitting back to look at it.

The cranes that she had left previously were never in the building the next time she came around. C.C. assumed that one of the staff took them, but where she didn’t know. The cranes might be taken to the staff room or thrown away, although C.C. doubted the latter. Nunnally had left cranes and flowers on her brother’s grave until the day she died. The cranes might confuse the staff, but they would keep them, maybe to string over Nunnally’s grave. C.C. was sure that Nunnally would have liked that. She might have had to hate her brother in public, but that hadn’t stopped her from loving him.

C.C. reached forward to adjust the crane, pausing to look at the rug that was spread out behind the effigy. The staff must have placed it there while they were cleaning the place up and forgotten to take it back. Part of the rug was bunched up, the corner tucked under itself. C.C. could just imagine Lelouch complaining about it, the corner of her mouth twitching up in something like a smile. She reached forward to tug the rug back into place, giving the effigy a stern look. “So you’ll leave me alone.”

She didn’t get an answer, not that she expected one. She gave the effigy one last pat before walking out of the mausoleum and into the dappled sunlight. C.C. stretched her arms over her head, taking a deep breath. She lowered her arms as she set off down the path and back toward the main part of the cemetery. As she walked, she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. She stared at it for a moment before nodding to herself.

“Now for you.”


	3. Chapter Two: Speakers for the Dead

“I was about to say that my friend and I have listened to a good many strange secrets in this room, and that we have had the good fortune to bring peace to many troubled souls.”  
- _The Yellow Face_ , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

* * *

Suzaku set the incense sticks in place, giving the set up a look over get getting down on his knees. He took a deep breath before clasping his hands together. He kept himself open, listening for any restlessness or the presence that had been in the garden before. Suzaku caught a flash of something. It wasn’t angry, but pacified. He nodded to himself and stood up, stepping back from the grave. It looked a bit makeshift, but it was better than nothing. Suzaku wasn’t sure they would mind something more sophisticated, but the spirit was just happy to have something at all. He gave the gravesite one more look over before heading up to the house.

He wasn’t surprised to see the young couple standing on their back porch. He gave them both a reassuring smile before gesturing down towards the grave. “I’ve got something set up and Takeshi Arai is happy with it. Feel free to update it when you can, but the important thing is to not forget about him. That’s what lead to the haunting in the first place.”

The wife nodded, but the husband looked worried. “And you’re sure all of him is there?”

Suzaku nodded. “I checked and fixed the grave the best I could without angering him further. The problem wasn’t that any part of him was missing, but that he had been forgotten. He was a soldier and they tend to not want to be forgotten.”

“But what side did he fight for?”

The man’s wife shot him a look that kept him quiet. The woman took a step forward. “I wonder if he would like a place on our alter, if that would make him happy.”

Suzaku shrugged. “Takeshi should be fine, but feel free. I’ll come back around in a few weeks to check on all of you.”

“Thank you.” The woman nodded, stepping around her husband to lead Suzaku out of the garden. She waited until they were away from her husband to speak, but even then it was a low whisper. “I’m sorry about Ren. If he hadn’t seen the ghost he wouldn’t have believed it, and he didn’t think the solution would be so easy.”

“He was expecting something with more flash?”

The woman nodded. “He did, like the full show that the other exorcists do. But I remember coming out here to visit my grandparents and seeing your mother working. When she was around, everything seemed more peaceful. Like everything was in balance instead of people just throwing their weight around. How is your mother anyway?”

 “She died.” He heard the woman gasp, but he shook his head. “There was a tumor…I think she was glad that it was all over.”

“I’m sorry.”

“She’s at peace.” Suzaku felt the usual uncomfortable twist in his stomach as he said the words. It was a phrase that he couldn’t just toss around lightly because those words carried a different weight. He ignored the feeling, because he was right. He had been by his mother’s side when she had passed and her soul had been settled, almost happy to be free of the suffering she had gone through. He offered the woman a smile, hoping that it would ease the look of shock on her face. “I think she would be happy knowing that people preferred her methods. It’s the best way to remember her, by keeping things going.”

The woman nodded, pausing to open the gate for them. “I’ll spread the word then. Tell your cousin hello from me.”

Suzaku stepped through the gate, turning to watch as the woman walked back. He could still sense the ghost of Takeshi lingering in the garden. The spirit was content for the moment, but Suzaku was sure that he would come by and talk to the spirit again. The wife seemed ready to try and balance everything out, but the husband would be the problem. Maybe he could convince Takeshi to take it easy, especially with the wife being so accommodating, but that was something for his next trip into town.

He stepped out onto the street, looking over the people bustling to the shops. It was more crowded than the videos that Suzaku had seen of the area from before and from his own memory from when he was younger. The suburbs of Tokyo were expanding and swallowing up the sleepy town of his childhood. Suzaku was sure that was why they were starting to have problems in the town. More humans were coming in and the old families were moving away. Ghosts were not good at handling change, it riled them up more often than not.

At least there were some things that were staying the same. The shops leading up to the station were the same and the station building itself hadn’t changed. There were just more things crammed between them. There had even been surveyors in the fields that Suzaku had played in as a child. It would be hard to see the place without the fields of sunflowers in the summer.

If there were plans for building in those fields, then he and Kaguya would have to go and do a sweep of the area. There was sure to be something in the fields between the two Black Rebellions and the Battle of Mount Fuji, if not from earlier. He remembered finding rusted scraps from the Knightmares in the field and bringing a few of them home. Suzaku was sure a few of them were still in the storehouse back at the house. Besides, he preferred to keep up with the problems in his own neighborhood, just to be able to pace themselves. With all of the fame that was coming their way, Suzaku was afraid that they would lose track of their continuing projects. Aside from his work with Takeshi, Suzaku couldn’t remember the last time he had solved a local problem that wasn’t Shinjuku. It felt good, but Suzaku doubted that it would have time for more.

There were already requests piling up for them. Kaguya was back at the house, sorting through them and probably starting on research. Suzaku was sure that he would be roped into research as soon as he got back. Knowing his cousin, she would push him to work on a case entirely separate from her, anything to get the process going faster. It was enough to make him wish that there was another team to pass the work off to, but there wasn’t anyone who would meet up to the standards that were being demanded of them. Too much flash and not enough care, but the flash was what people wanted.

He shook his head, turning up the road that would lead to the Kururugi Shrine. Suzaku could already see the _torii_ gate at the top of the hill. The roofs of the shrine and the house were just barely visible over the tree tops. Suzaku sighed, feeling something in him unwind at the sight. Home was quickly becoming a reward. A few days at home meant that it was a job well done. He could get a few days of rest before he went out again. Getting the chance to rest meant that he wouldn’t burn out, not like Uncle Subaru. The last that Suzaku had heard, his uncle was still in a coma.

Suzaku started up the steps pausing halfway up to look over the fields. He couldn’t see if anything had started, but he wanted to get out to the field, but there were signs up advertising what was soon to come. From what he could see, there was no sign that the shrine and his family home would be in danger, which was a relief in itself. He and Kaguya barely had the time to look after themselves with their schedule, he couldn’t imagine how they would look for a new home in between their jobs.

He turned slowly, looking over to the fields on the other side only to come to a stop when he noticed the limo parked at the base of the steps. Suzaku glanced up towards the house, tipping his head to the side. He couldn’t remember any appointments, unless they were getting a walk in. He reached for his phone, sighing when the screen remained black. It must have died while he was dealing with Takeshi. Kaguya had probably called him to tell him to hurry back, which meant that she was probably furious at him by now. Suzaku shoved his phone back into his pocket, ready to jog up the rest of the stairs when he heard a car door slam shut.

He turned around, surprised to see a foreigner standing at the base of the stairs. The man sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair before he looked up at Suzaku. Suzaku thought he saw a frown cross the man’s face before the man started to slowly climb the stairs.

Suzaku shifted in place as the man came close, meeting his gaze. The man didn’t look away for long, his focus back on the stairs as he grumbled under his breath.

Suzaku looked down at the limo, waiting for more people to get out before giving in. He was obviously already late to whatever meeting was being held. He didn’t want to incur the wrath of his cousin any more than he had to. He turned and jogged up the stairs, easily passing the man. Suzaku thought he heard the man say something, but he was already away.

He cleared the top of the stairs, not breaking his jog as he headed for the house. Suzaku rushed through the front door, pausing long enough to toe off his shoes. He used the time to try and figure out where the voices were coming from. Where Kaguya had taken their visitors would give him a clue to who was coming. If they were from Japan they would be in one of the larger rooms that overlooked the garden or the shrine. If they were from outside of the country, Kaguya would have taken them to the library. He tipped his head to the side, nodding when the voices sounded louder from his left, in the direction of the library. Suzaku stepped up from the front entrance, trying to be as quick as possible as he walked towards the library.

He couldn’t help but stop outside the door. The room had once been his father’s study before Genbu had moved to the city to be closer to his work and away from things that he didn’t understand. His father might have been gone, but his rules still survived. It didn’t matter that Genbu was no longer in the study, Suzaku always had to pause and be sure that he wasn’t going to be barging in. Suzaku took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

It took everything he had not to wince when Kaguya looked his way. Her expression remained neutral but there was enough of a warning in the way that her eyebrows twitched. Suzaku was sure that he would be interrogated about why he had ignored her calls, and he wasn’t sure that he would be able to wiggle out with an excuse, not with the client sitting across from her.

Suzaku sat down in the chair beside his cousin, giving the woman on the other side of the table a nod. He opened his mouth to apologize, almost glad when Kaguya took control of the conversation again.

“This is my cousin, Suzaku. He had a prior appointment.”

The woman smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You too.”

He was stopped from saying anything else by a tug to his sleeve. He shot his cousin a quick glance, Kaguya tipping her head towards their client. “This is Nunnally Kingsley. She’s the aide to a senator in Britannia.”

“Senator Maldini.” Nunnally offered the name, Suzaku feeling like the name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. Then again, he hadn’t ever paid much attention to the Britannian government other than the reigning monarch. Politics had never managed to touch them too much, aside from a few reminders to remain quiet when they dug something up in their research that families would prefer not to be public knowledge.

He glanced over at Kaguya, getting a slight tip of the head that she always used in place of a shrug. Suzaku turned his attention back to Nunnally, finding it easy to smile at her. “Well, how can we help Senator Maldini?”

To his surprise, Nunnally blushed and looked down at the table. She traced her finger along the grain of the wood before jerking her hand back down into her lap. “It’s not for the senator, I think he would just laugh if he knew. It’s something a bit higher up…in a way, and it’s a bit personal.” She took a deep breath before leaning forward. “What do you know about the Aries Villa?”

Suzaku shook his head, glad when Kaguya was the one to speak up.

“We don’t know anything about it.”

“I’m surprised. I thought word of what’s going on there would get out. Then again, maybe not.” She sighed and reached up to push her hair back. “Maybe the world really wants to forget him. I’m getting ahead of myself though and I must be confusing you.”

She cleared her throat and gave them both an even look, one Suzaku suspected that she had picked up after years of dealing with the senators of Britannia. “The Aries Villa is an old house owned by the royal family of Britannia. They’ve used it for various purposes, but the important thing is that it’s haunted. I can’t say how many ghosts for sure, but I know that people have died in that house, four to be exact. I know for sure which ghost killed them, because the same ghost hurt me and my brother.”

Nunnally pushed away from the table, Suzaku’s gaze dropping to the wheelchair that she was in. He was taken aback by the fact that he had failed to notice it, but he had been distracted by his need to get into the room before the meeting had progressed too far, and then by his cousin’s ire.

Suzaku sucked in a quick breath, meeting Nunnally’s gaze. She shook her head, patting her knee almost absently. “I was ten when it happened. My cousins and I went into the Aries Villa and the ghost chased us out of one of the upper rooms. I broke my back when I fell down the stairs, and it severed some nerves. One of my cousins went insane because of what he had seen. I hadn’t heard of anything happening in fifteen years until my brother went to the mansion. He said that the ghost appeared in front of him and reached for him, but he doesn’t remember where he was or why the ghost would want to do that. All he knows was that the ghost wanted to kill him.”

Kaguya made a concerned noise, Suzaku nodding his head slightly in agreement. They were used to dealing with aggressive ghosts, it seemed to be a natural thing to happen when spirits remained on earth for too long. But an aggressive ghost was bound to be trouble, especially if it had killed before. That meant that there was usually some kind of possessive feelings still left about the place where it was. They would have to look closely at the past of the Aries Villa to figure out what they could do to ease that aggression so they could at least get into the mansion.

He leaned his elbows on the table, looking over at his cousin. Suzaku didn’t want to just accept the case without her agreement, but she had never turned anything down so far. She looked just as concerned as he did, to the point where she was reaching for her pocket like she had her talismans still secured there.

Suzaku watched as her hand flexed as it closed on nothing, the motion seeming to snap his cousin out of what she was thinking. Kaguya shook her head before leaning forward, mirroring his position.

“We’re going to need to look into this case carefully. It’ll involve a lot of research on our end and full participation on your side. There are some records that the royal family might have that we can’t get our hands on.”

Nunnally nodded along. “I’m sure that you’ll be given permission to look at the files. Queen Euphemia li Britannia is very interested in fixing this. She was one of the cousins there with me when we went into the villa fifteen years ago. The caretaker of the villa is very interested in this too. She’s the one that directed me to you.”

Suzaku frowned, trying to remember anything interesting in the mail. He had been consumed with Takeshi Arai and getting his spirit settled as soon as possible under the assumption that they would be called away. Suzaku glanced at Kaguya, watching as his cousin nodded, her gaze flicking to the pile of correspondence that was on the desk behind them.

“We received the letter. I was going to respond today, because I never actually thought that someone from the royal family would come and follow it up.”

Nunnally waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not really from the royal family. Related yes, but you’ll find that there’s quite a difference between me and anyone with Britannia attached to their name.” Nunnally was silent for a moment, her smile disappearing from her face quickly. She stared down at her knees before looking up at the two of them. “But maybe that’s close enough for the ghost.”

“What do you mean?”

Nunnally didn’t look up at Suzaku’s question, her gaze focused somewhere beyond her knees. “Everyone knows that he wanted to kill her, and mother did name me after the empress…”

Suzaku slid out of his chair, walking around to kneel beside Nunnally. The move felt right for some reason, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He rested his hand on the table, not wanting to reach out for her without permission, royalty or not. Suzaku leaned forward until he caught her gaze, watching her come back to herself. When he was sure that she was back, he spoke. “Why are you sure that the ghost is after you? You said that it didn’t attack you directly.”

“Yes, but what if it didn’t need to. What if it knew?” Nunnally chewed on her lip, her gaze darting over to Kaguya before she focused on him again. “It would be unfair if I let you go in there thinking it’s just another ghost, because it’s not. And I don’t want anyone else getting hurt because of me.”

“Why would he try and hurt us?”

“Because it’s the ghost of the Demon Emperor.”

The words were spoken in such a low whisper that Suzaku had to lean forward to hear them. Even then it took him a while to process what they meant.

He jerked back from Nunnally, staring at her in shock before looking over at Kaguya. They had tackled big ghosts before, ancient ghosts, but the horror from Lelouch vi Britannia’s reign still hung over the world. Suzaku was sure that just mentioning that some part of the Demon Emperor was still alive was enough to give some people nightmares. And to think he was sitting close to Pendragon, perhaps killing important people. There was no telling what the ghost could have done, especially since the Aries Villa was still in use. The ghost could kill the entire royal family and leave Britannia in tatters. Suzaku might not be caught up politics, but he caught enough news to know that Britannia was hovering on the edge of civil war. If the wrong person got on the throne, then the world might find itself under the heel of another Britannian Empire. Suzaku was sure the entire world would rise up before that happened, which would mean war, and a nearly endless one.

Suzaku felt a cold chill of fear run down his spine. He curled his fingers around the edge of the table to keep from shivering.

The silence must have gone on for too long because Nunnally back her wheelchair away from the table. She smiled at the two of them before ducking her head. “If it’s a bit much to ask I’ll understand if you say no.”

Suzaku stood up, bracing himself against the table for a moment. He watched as Nunnally retreated to the door, seeing the man that he had passed on the steps step to the side for her.

The man leaned over to talk to her, Nunnally shaking her head in response to whatever he had said. Suzaku felt his stomach turn at the disappointed look on Nunnally’s face. He found himself stepping forward before he had even really thought about what he was doing.

“Wait.” He saw Nunnally’s head turn back towards him, Suzaku coming to a stop. “We’ll take the case.”

Suzaku ignored the sound that Kaguya made behind him, his breath taken away by the look that Nunnally gave him. In all of his years of working with ghosts, he had never seen anyone look more relieved.

“You will? Thank you.”

“We’ll call you when we’re ready to head over. There’s a lot of things to take care of on our end.” Suzaku heard the annoyance in his cousin’s voice, although Nunnally didn’t seem to. She just nodded and started down the hallway.

Kaguya brushed past him on her way to escort Nunnally out, his cousin barely paying attention to the man that shadowed Nunnally. Suzaku found himself watching the man carefully, his fingers curling into a fist as he watched the man’s fingers brush over what was obviously a concealed gun before the three of them were out of his sight.

Suzaku sighed and leaned back against the table, drumming his fingers against it as he looked at the books on the shelves. His mother had collected a fair few and Kaguya’s family had donated a few when their own library had gotten overcrowded. Suzaku knew that he and Kaguya had added to the collection over time, but he was sure that there was nothing on the Britannian royal family besides what the history books could tell them. He frowned and walked over to where his laptop was, starting it up just as Kaguya stormed into the room.

Suzaku hunched over his laptop when he heard Kaguya practically slam the door behind her. He didn’t get too long to attempt a search before Kaguya shoved his laptop out of the way to glare down at him.

“What do you think you are doing?”

“Helping a client.”

“Did you hear what she said?!”

“I did, and if you don’t think this is a problem then you’re wrong.”

“I know it’s a problem!” Kaguya ran a hand through her hair before cocking her hip against the table. The fingers of one hand were still tangled in her hair, but she was focused on him again. “Believe me, I know and I’m sure I’ll get reminded when I start going through everything that’s know about the ghost. But we usually talk these things over, especially if they’re going to be dangerous.”

“Were you going to say no?” From the look that Kaguya gave him, he already knew the answer. They made a point of trying to focus on ghosts that put people in danger. It wasn’t a matter of pride, it was a matter of making sure the job was done right without a chance of the ghosts sneaking back through. Suzaku sighed and shook his head. “I thought so.”

Kaguya made a noise that might have been disagreement as she walked to the other side of the library. Suzaku twisted in his chair to watch her walk along the shelf, probably looking for a history of Britannia. It was on the tip of his tongue to point her to where one was, but he doubted that she would appreciate the help. What Kaguya needed was something else.

He pulled his laptop close to him again, staring at the half started search inquiry before he sighed. “We’re doing the right thing.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel it.”

Suzaku thought he heard her steady footsteps around the room falter for a moment, but it was heard to tell when the pattern didn’t repeat itself. He shrugged and focused on the screen of his laptop, trying to find a comprehensive family tree of the royal family.

* * *

Kaguya sipped at her tea, closing her eyes at the taste. No matter what she did she couldn’t get her tea to taste like her father’s. She had thought that after twenty-five years of watching her father make tea, she would have picked up the trick, but she still floundered. Maybe it was just meant to be, especially considering that she had picked up the other talents of the family.

She sighed, staring down into the tea before setting her cup down. Kaguya saw her father pause out of the corner of her eye, watching as he set his own cup on the table.

There was a moment of silence before her father shifted in his chair. “You know you two are allowed to stop for a bit.”

Kaguya raised one shoulder in a shrug, raising her head to look at her father.

Yataro Sumeragi looked the same as he always had, at least to her. She was aware that his hair was slowly becoming more grey than black, but his steadiness was the same. Sometimes she thought that her father could live for a thousand years and he would still be the same. It was comforting in a way that being with her mother wasn’t. Midori was quick and changeable, moving with the flow instead of remaining steady against it. Kaguya couldn’t have imagined two more different people than her parents, but maybe that’s why they hadn’t worked out.

She knew that her mother had always rebelled against the assumption that her daughter would go into the family business. Midori wasn’t stupid enough to just ignore the existence of ghosts, but she had preferred to ignore all strange happenings that were going on. She had been like Uncle Genbu in that respect, the two of them had never seemed to be comfortable with what the Sumeragi family was famous for. Then again, in Uncle Genbu’s case, the Sumeragi fame was probably better than the fame that his own last name brought upon him.

“Kaguya?”

She shook her head and looked up at her father, embarrassed by the concern on his face. She traced her finger around the base of her cup, biting her lip. “Can we?”

“That’s your grandfather I hear.” Yataro sighed and leaned back in his chair. “You’re allowed to stop if you have to. Don’t let him drive you like he drove Subaru. Now he has one daughter in the grave, one son close to following and me.” Yataro raised an eyebrow, acknowledging the years of family fights without speaking of them. “He might be willing to sacrifice more, but I’m willing to let you set the pace. The Sumeragis can’t carry out their duty if there aren’t any more left.”

“It’s not that.” She wrapped her hands around her cup, feeling the warmth seep into her palms. Kaguya closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of her family home.

It always smelled like earth and flowers, the scent buried deep into every nook and cranny. It was life and everything that this side of the world was. It wasn’t cold or vacant like the glimpses that Kaguya had gotten when they had forcibly exorcised a ghost. Then again, she might be wrong about the afterlife. For every ghost easily coaxed on or exorcised, they always seemed to see something that filled them with joy. Maybe it was because it wasn’t for her to see. That still didn’t stop her from clinging to anything that reminded her of living.

She took another deep breath, letting it out slowly. She was glad that her father was giving her time, her mother would have pushed in, trying to be helpful in her own way. But it was hard to explain things when she had to pick them out of a jumble of feelings and gut instincts that she couldn’t even make sense of sometimes.

Kaguya opened her eyes when she was ready, watching her father tip his head slightly to show that he was listening. She couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face at that. She rubbed her thumb against the curve of her cup, grounding herself as she continued on. “I’m sure we could use the break, but we have a job to do.”

“So soon?”

Kaguya shrugged, the sudden turn around wasn’t new, at least to her and Suzaku. Her father could probably remember the days when there had been months between jobs. “It’s in Britannia, in Pendragon.” She saw her father’s eyebrow twitch, the only sign that he was starting to get impatient. “It’s about the Demon Emperor.”

Yataro stared at her before letting out a quick curse. Kaguya could only nod along with him. It was her reaction every time she had caught herself thinking about the job that they had agreed to do. Of course she felt sorry for Nunnally Kingsley and applauded the woman’s sense of duty, but it was hard to get rid of one hundred years of fear. Kaguya could still remember what they had been taught in class, the horrors that they had been shown. There was no way could be forgotten so quickly.

“Kaguya, it’s…”

“I know.” She let go of her cup, pushing it away from her again. “I’ve been over it in my head hundreds of times, and with Suzaku. Whatever we come up with can’t beat the fact that this ghost has killed people, and probably will again. It doesn’t take much to think about what will happen if we just leave it alone. And don’t say that I’m thinking too much like grandfather, it’s the truth.”

Yataro held up a hand in surrender, lowering it back to the table slowly. He didn’t speak until his palm was flat against the table. “You don’t have to do this on your own.”

Kaguya shook her head. It was their case, given to them because they were the most trustworthy. If that had been it, then Kaguya would have gladly invited some of her other contacts. But every time she thought about bringing someone else in all she could see were the headlines that had marked the deaths of four people, all of them brutally stabbed, even the infant. She couldn’t take more people there knowing that there was a good chance that they would just stumble into something that they weren’t prepared for. Kaguya wasn’t even sure that she and Suzaku were prepared for it.

She looked back up at her father. “Suzaku says he has a feeling about this.”

The mention of her cousin made Yataro frown. He pressed both palms against the table, contemplating the wood grain. “What kind of feeling?”

“I don’t know and I don’t think he knows either. He just keeps saying that it’s right.”

“He’d better be careful about those feelings of his.”

“His just more sensitive to these things.”

“So was Subaru and so was his mother.” Yataro shook his head. “There’s a point where you can get too sensitive, and then spirits start to take advantage. It’s not good for him to leave himself open like that.”

Kaguya carefully kept her silence. Her father had always helped them before, but it was hard to convince him that their way of doing things worked for them. It had to be different for him, only seeing the results and never what had brought them, but Kaguya wished he could understand.

All the Sumeragis were sensitive to ghosts, but it was a wide flung range. Kaguya considered herself average among her family, spells and words were what she excelled at. Suzaku’s sensitivity was important to their dynamic. He was an early warning system and an emotional read on the ghost all in one. Things had always worked before, and Kaguya was loath to change it suddenly. The Demon Emperor was going to be tough and she didn’t want them stumbling all over each other.

She reached out to flick her fingers against her cup, but she caught herself. Kaguya curled her fingers towards her palm. “I’ll tell him that.”

“And he’ll ignore you. I didn’t think that anyone could be more stubborn than my sister, but then I met Genbu Kururugi.” Yataro shook his head. “What their stubbornness will do to that boy…”

“That’s why I keep him in check.”

“And that’s why you work well together.” Yataro smiled at her before leaning back in his chair, looking relaxed now that they had edged past the subject of the Demon Emperor.

She was willing to let them stay far away from the topic. She still felt like she wanted to crawl somewhere and hide every time he was mentioned, like he was one of the creatures that her mother would always insist were waiting for her if she didn’t behave. She could always introduce the reason she had come to visit her father later. Yataro was sure to want her to check over the spells and talismans she had laid the last time she had come around. She could always ask about the book of old spells then, which would leave the topic of their conversations safely away from the case that loomed ahead of her.

* * *

Suzaku walked through the graveyard, feeling himself relax. He was sure that it was weird to be so at peace in a cemetery, but he had never found them creepy. Then again, the cemeteries he tended to frequent were the public ones, the places were graves were kept in order and there were always people stopping by to pray and remember. It was the private cemeteries, the ones tucked away and in danger of being forgotten about that were the uneasy ones. It was nice to be able to walk without any ghost trying to reach out for him, which meant that he could collect his thoughts without having to be on the alert.

Aoyama Cemetery had plenty of people strolling through, but they were easy to ignore and easy to blend into. Unless one of the ghosts waved him down - which was unlikely because they had all moved on, or were sleeping peacefully until their next chance to enter the afterlife – Suzaku was just another one of the visitors to the cemetery. He was just another person looking for something, except that it wasn’t a specific headstone.

Kaguya might have been able to spend hours on end in the library or glued to her computer screen while she researched, but he couldn’t manage it. There was only so much sitting he could deal with before he felt the pull to go somewhere else. Besides, Suzaku was sure that he was better at processing information while he moved. It had worked plenty of other times when he had been pulling together what he had learned about their latest job. All he needed was some quiet to himself and plenty of room to walk.

Suzaku purposefully headed down one of the more deserted paths, looking around for people he might run into before letting his mind wander.

He and Kaguya had been working on the case all day, the two of them moving through separate archives to see what they could find about the Aries Villa.

The house itself was easy enough to find information on, much to Suzaku’s surprise. He had thought that a Britannian villa would be practically unknown to Japan, but the villa had actually started out in Tokyo. It had been originally been a Britannian nobleman’s villa until Emperor Lelouch had won the Battle of Mount Fuji. The mansion had been the residence of the emperor and his court until Lelouch died. Even Nunnally had spent a few months in the mansion before she had moved back to oversee the beginning stages of the rebuilding of Pendragon. Empress Nunnally had been the one to offer to buy the mansion when Prime Minister Ohgi had decided to tear it down. The Aries Villa had been transported to Britannia and set up on the newly filled crater to be a getaway for the royal family.

There was nothing strange about the house itself that Suzaku could see, save for the very obvious fact that the emperor’s ghost had every reason to haunt the building. It was the last place he had lived and the place where he had been laid out before his sister had snuck his body away for burial. Then again, just moving the villa would have been enough to coax the Demon Emperor back into action, but he had kept quiet for decades, only resurfacing two years before Aurelia vi Britannia was married to Prince Zan Lihua of the Chinese Federation. Even then he hadn’t been killing. Suzaku had found a few mentions of Lelouch vi Britannia being spotted in the halls of the Aries Villa, but he didn’t get violent until the few months before Aurelia’s marriage, and Suzaku couldn’t seem to connect why. Nor could he connect a reason for any of the other men who had died in the Aries Villa, especially since one of the deaths had been a child.

What reason could the Demon Emperor had for killing a child?

Suzaku shook his head. It was a confusing mess, but at least there was time to go over it. He and Kaguya were sure to pick apart some bits of the mystery on the plane ride over to Britannia.

Still, the trouble that Nunnally Kingsley had had with the ghost didn’t make sense. From what Suzaku could tell, the Demon Emperor always killed the same way, a stab through the stomach like he had been killed. Suzaku absently rubbed the spot on his own torso. Ghosts loved patterns, which made the attacks on Nunnally and her brother make no sense.

Maybe the Demon Emperor hated Nunnally Kingsley because she looked so much like her great great great grandmother, Nunnally vi Britannia.

Suzaku had spent half of his time in the library tracking down the Kingsley family and he had kept running into pictures of the two Nunnallys. The empress had always seemed to have some worry lines on her face, but that was a difference of years and nothing more. Suzaku hadn’t been able to find any pictures of Empress Nunnally when she had been younger, but he was willing to bet that she looked the same as Nunnally Kingsley. That sort of different wouldn’t matter to a ghost, the Demon Emperor probably just saw the little sister that betrayed him.

What that meant for Julius Kingsley, Suzaku didn’t know. He couldn’t imagine the ghost comprehending the sprawling family tree that he had spent hours looking over. Suzaku was willing to bet that the ghost wasn’t even aware of what had happened to Empress Nunnally’s family; ghosts usually weren’t aware of the passage of time. The Demon Emperor was probably just seeing someone he thought was his sister and going after her.

He shook his head, trying to clear it from the endless repetition of the names of the royal family. Suzaku was sure that there were at least three Charles in every generation, which made identifying individuals hard. He was pretty sure he had managed to untangle the Kingsley line from Nunnally’s fourth child, Princess Kerena, down to their clients; although the amount they were still entangled with the royal family was surprising. That entanglement might just be the reason that the Demon Emperor went after Nunnally, because she was still related to the royal family.

Suzaku ran a hand through his hair and sighed, looking around at the cemetery.

He had managed to wander into one of the old sections, the headstones weathered and scarred by the many battles that had been fought over Tokyo. Suzaku scanned them over, smiling at the old memory of following his mother through Aoyama Cemetery. She had been the one to introduce him to the place, but she had never brought him over to the Britannian section.

Suzaku was sure that the portion of the cemetery that had been used during the Britannian occupation had an official name, but he didn’t think that anyone used it. Most people didn’t stray into the section, not unless they wanted to visit a nobleman’s grave. Even the most famous grave in the section didn’t get many visitors, although Suzaku wasn’t surprised. Japan seemed more than willing to forget her most infamous son.

He hesitated for a moment before striding down the path, leaving behind the familiar upright headstones of the Japanese section for the squat headstones and stone plaques that the Britannians had used. Suzaku didn’t bother to read the names carved into the stones, too busy looking for a single name.

He found it towards the end of the section, sitting between two noblemen with much grander headstones. Suzaku glanced at the intricate carving of two deer and an angel before looking down at the simple stone that had been placed at the head of the grave. Years and vandalism attempts had worn parts of it away, but the inscription could still be read. Suzaku dropped into a crouch, his fingers tracing over the letters.

Knight of Zero  
SUZAKU KURURUGI  
2000-2018  
Here lies a consummate and invaluable Knight to His Highness Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire.

Suzaku lifted his hand away, looking over the bare inscription. He always found himself expecting more from the traitor knight, but there wasn’t, just a short record of his service to Lelouch vi Britannia and nothing else. There wasn’t even an image like many of the other Britannian graves had.

He sighed and rocked back on his heels. There was nothing to be found at the Knight of Zero’s grave, everything that he needed about Suzaku Kururugi was in the library.

Suzaku was sure that there had to be something about his infamous ancestor in the Kururugi library, but anything that had mentioned the Knight of Zero had been either torn out of the book or viciously scribbled over by some family member long before Suzaku had been born. He had managed to exist in a strange world where he didn’t know just who his name connected him to until he had gone to school and seen how the other children had looked at him.

It was like they had seen a ghost.

He shivered and stood up. There was nothing wrong with his name, the old ones were starting to cycle back into fashion. Of course, it would always be more popular for people to name their children after Kaname Ohgi, the first post-Britannian rule Prime Minister, or Kallen Kozuki, the ace pilot of the Black Knights. It was just another difference between them, something that Suzaku was used to. All he knew was that there had been a point to the name, and that his mother had chosen it.

He stared at the headstone for a moment more before shaking his head. Looking into the Knight of Zero would just put him off track. The Demon Emperor and the traitor knight had worked together, but only one of them had come back as a ghost.

Suzaku stood up, giving the headstone one last glance. Kaguya hadn’t scheduled their flight out to Britannia, but that didn’t mean that they had time to delay. With the schedule that they had set themselves, they would be running out of material that they could access from Japan. Besides, the best evidence that they found usually came from the family and the location itself.

He turned to leave, looking back at a soft meow from the headstone. Suzaku glanced back towards the headstone, not surprised to see a cat sitting on it. There were plenty of cats in the Aoyama Cemetery, all of them practically feral and roaming free. The only time he had seen one in a cage was when the staff rounded up as many as they could for veterinary checks.

Suzaku glanced down the path before dropping into a crouch and holding his hand out. The cat cocked its head to the side, its tail flicking for a moment before it stepped off the headstone. Suzaku remained still, letting the cat come to him.

The black cat looked interested enough. It kept its head tipped to the side, giving Suzaku a good look at the darker patch of fur around its eye. The cat blinked slowly at him before coming to a stop halfway between the headstone and Suzaku. The cat’s tail twitched again, Suzaku not sure if the motion meant anything.

He didn’t get the chance to find out, the cat twitching before scampering back beyond the headstone. Suzaku leaned forward to watch the cat go before shaking his head. He didn’t think anyone had managed to lure the cats of Aoyama away, the cats preferred to keep to their home among the stones. Suzaku was sure that anyone who stole one of the cats would risk angering the ghosts. Maybe it was for the best, he and cats never seemed to get along.

Suzaku stood up again, shoving his hands into his pockets. The motion drew his gaze back to the headstone, Suzaku scanning over the short inscription that had been left behind. He should go back and meet Kaguya for lunch. They still had to go over what they had found and try to put together a cohesive picture of what they would be facing. In fact, Suzaku fully expected his cousin to call him, but he couldn’t help but linger.

Everything left a trace behind it. Energy couldn’t be created nor destroyed. Even if the ghost had gone to the afterlife something of them remained behind. It was nothing big enough to come back to haunt, at most it came out as a sense of peace, but it was something.

He extended his senses, honing them in on the energy around the Knight of Zero’s grave. It took him a moment to zero in on the grave itself, picking up vague senses of peace from the two graves on either side of it before he was able to center on the headstone.

Suzaku jerked back when he realized that he was looking at a blank spot. He frowned, staring down at the ground. The only reason that the plot would be blank was if there was no body in the grave.

The conclusion wasn’t too surprising, especially considering the riots that had happened soon after the death of Lelouch vi Britannia. Or the staff of the cemetery had taken the body to make sure that it wasn’t stolen. There were many theories, but none of them would help them.

Suzaku sighed and turned away from the grave. Kaguya was waiting for him, which meant the mystery of what had happened to the Knight of Zero would have to wait.


	4. Chapter Three: The King’s Indian Defense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The King’s Indian Defense is a chess defense strategy that allows White the control of the board while Black creates a strong defense around the king. From there, Black watches for a weak place to counterattack. It’s generally a very passive opening

"Now there has come one who will take the measure!"  
– _Lancelot: Knight of the Cart_ , Chretien de Troyes

* * *

Nunnally knocked on the door to Euphemia’s offices, not surprised when the queen’s aide opened it. She had assumed that Euphemia would be in a meeting, it seemed like Euphemia had been stuck in nothing else for weeks. Then again, it was the right time of year for it. The Senate was in session, there were Privy Council meetings to attend as well as celebrations to look over. The thing that was more surprising was the little girl that peered out from behind Shirley Fenette.

Nunnally leaned forward in her wheelchair to smile at the girl, chuckling when she ducked behind Shirley again. She straightened up to meet Shirley’s gaze. “I have the files that Euphy asked Schneizel to drop off.”

“Of course.” Shirley stepped out of the way, the little girl scuttling to stay behind her. “Euphemia is just meeting with Nestor right now.”

“I can just leave them.”

Shirley shook her head. “They’re just talking for a bit. They’ve been done with official business for an hour now. Besides, Euphemia told me to keep an eye out for you.”

Nunnally paused part of the way in the room. “Did she want to talk to me about something?”

“She didn’t say.” Nunnally moved forward with the answer, hearing the soft beeps as Shirley keyed in the code to the door. She was quick to step up beside her, walking with Nunnally through the front room of the queen’s office. “She got swept away with what she and Nestor were planning for the end of September. And I’ve been busy going through the things that she’ll need for tomorrow.”

Shirley brushed a hand over her hair, pausing for a moment before shaking her head. “Give me a moment, I’ll announce you.”

Nunnally nodded, watching as Shirley reached down to take the little girl’s hand. Shirley led the girl over to the table, lifting her up into one of the seats.

She kissed the girl’s head, brushing back her hair. “Mommy’s got to work now. Can you keep helping Mrs. Cardemonde?”

The girl nodded at her mother before turning in her chair to look at her crayon box. With great solemnity, the girl picked out a purple crayon before beginning to move it across a piece of blank paper, copying what Mrs. Cardemonde was doing at the other desk. The older woman smiled and started dictating what sounded like notes to her, the little girl nodding every once and a while.

Nunnally pressed a hand to her mouth, keeping it there until Shirley came back. She got an amused look in return before Shirley gestured for Nunnally to follow her. “Josephine likes helping out here. She has the record for most colorful notes.”

“I’m sure Euphy loves having her around.”

“She does. Although it always disappoints Josephine that she can’t go to the ‘grown up’ meetings.”

“She wouldn’t like it, everyone just yells at each other.”

The two of them exchanged knowing looks before Shirley stepped around Nunnally to open a door. Nunnally heard the soft murmur of voices before they came to a stop, not able to see who was talking around Shirley.

The woman bowed before stepping to the side. “Nunnally’s brought the files you asked for.”

Euphemia leaned forward in her seat to smile at her, Nunnally taking it as her permission to enter. She maneuvered her wheelchair around the couches in the center of the room and over to the desk. She slipped the files on the desk, looking over at Nestor as the king’s consort nodded at her. The old man was a fixture in the royal palace, continuing on much like he had before King Richard’s death. Nunnally couldn’t remember a time when Nestor d’Avalos hadn’t been around, but it was still strange to see him without the taller figure of King Richard close by. His teasing grin seemed to have disappeared at the same time, Nunnally almost missing that as much as she missed the boisterous king.

Nestor didn’t seem to notice her searching look, he just settled back in his chair giving her one of his own. “I thought you would be gone by now. I remember Euphemia saying something about having guests to welcome.”

Nunnally winced at the reminder, looking over at the clock. Suzaku and Kaguya had flown in about an hour ago, but she had been stuck in a meeting with another former noble trying to sway Schneizel over to his side, this time with a whole brace of Senators to back him up. Schneizel hadn’t been available for the meeting, which had meant that she’d had to listen to their threats about leaving and then take down what they wanted to say to the senator when they wouldn’t leave without having their say. Thankfully, Jeremiah had been more than willing to pick the two up at the airport, and Julius had stepped in for her. Or so his last message to her had said.

She wasn’t sure if her brother would actually go back to the villa or not, which just made it all the more important to hurry out as fast as she could.

Nunnally nodded, glancing up at Euphemia before starting to back her wheelchair away. Euphemia didn’t stand on ceremony when it was just the two of them, which meant that she could make a quick getaway to where Rolo was bound to be waiting by the car. It didn’t matter that the Aries Villa was just over the fields in the back of the imperial palace, Nunnally was sure that it would take her longer in the wheelchair than in the car, even with the traffic in Pendragon.

She stopped her careful backwards movement when Euphemia put the files down on the desk and stood up. Nunnally was surprised when he cousin reached for her jacket, giving Nestor a short bow. “I’m glad we got this chance to talk. I’ll make sure that the changes are made before the parade.”

Nestor raised an eyebrow. “You’re rushing off now too?”

Euphemia shrugged on her jacket, tugging it into place. “Well, it technically is my house.”

Nestor remained silent for a minute before his eyes widened. He stood up, leaning slightly against Euphemia’s desk to help himself stand. “Did you finally find a place for Miss Nunnally?”

Nunnally could tell by the look on Euphemia’s face that she was tempted to lie to Nestor, but the impulse was gone as quickly as it was there. Euphemia shook her head and stepped around the desk. “We have an appointment at the Aries Villa.”

“But Euphy-”

Euphemia held up a hand, not giving her the chance to finish. “If I don’t do this now, then I won’t get a chance until everything is finished. I should at least be there at first, if only to hear what’s going to be done.”

“And what would you be doing to the villa?” Nestor stepped forward. “I thought the two of you learned your lesson the last time you went in there.”

It was impossible to ignore the glance that Nestor gave her wheelchair. Nunnally blushed, but pivoted to face the old man. “We did. But I’m afraid that, if we leave it, the ghost will only get worse. People won’t stop going into that house. What happens if the next people are killed?”

The question seemed to deflate Nestor. He leaned against the desk, shaking his head slowly. “Richard always did say that the ghost was more than just an angry spirit. He said it was a warning.”

Nunnally glanced at Euphemia, surprised by the news. She had never heard anything about it, just the horror stories about the people that had been killed in the Aries Villa as the ghost of the Demon Emperor attempted to take his vengeance on all the people that stopped him. It made sense with the people who had died in the place since they had all been connected to the royal family in some way. And the ghost had come after her and Julius. The Kingsley family hadn’t been recognized as part of the royal family in thirty-four years, but they’d always had close connections to it.

Nestor regarded them silently for a moment before he spoke again. “That ghost is an omen of bad things to come. He appears when things aren’t right in Britannia. It’s a warning to the monarch to act, before he has to. Richard was terrified in the first ten years of his reign, because people kept seeing the ghost, especially after that baby had been killed. He kept working at the situation and the ghost went away.”

“So why is he back?”

Nestor shrugged. “That’s just what Richard said. I never believed in the ghost, not really. Isn’t it enough to have Zero hanging around like an executioner all the time? Why do you need another warning of what might happen if you let things go for too long?”

The old man shook his head and shuffled out of the room, Nunnally watching him go. She had never considered the ghost as an omen, but she doubted that it could be so simple. If that was the case, then why hadn’t Lelouch’s ghost been around constantly when Emperor Lance was around? Then again, just the appearance of the ghost could be enough to throw the world into a panic.

Lelouch vi Britannia had held the world in thrall and the news that he had returned, even as a ghost, might be enough for the EU and the China to come charging in.

Nunnally shuddered at the idea, turning to look at Euphemia. She wasn’t surprised to see that her cousin was shaking, the news would have shaken her too. Euphemia had been working hard to keep Britannia from splintering into civil war because of what Emperor Lance had done but, if Nestor was right about the ghost, then it meant that she wasn’t doing what needed to be done and that a war was inevitable. Nunnally couldn’t believe that it was true, not after everything that Euphemia had been doing for the year she had been on the throne.

She reached up to take Euphemia’s hand, squeezing it gently. “He doesn’t get to pass judgment on you.”

Euphemia stared down at her for a moment before her usual bright smile was back. “You’re right. He doesn’t.”

Euphemia tugged on her jacket before stepping behind Nunnally’s wheelchair. Nunnally let her cousin push her towards the door, taking control of the wheelchair once Euphemia had maneuvered her through the worst of the obstacles in the office. Euphemia still leaned slightly against the handles, staying close as the two of them moved out into the hall.

* * *

Few things in Suzaku’s life had inspired him with the same awe as did the crater that made up Old Pendragon. He leaned close to the window as they were driven past it, paying no attention to the bustling city and airport that they had just left behind. The city of Pendragon was like many of the others he had seen, a rush of people and full of skyscrapers. Intermingled in there he could sense some ghosts, but he ignored them in favor of tracing the line around the filled crater.

There was no physical mark to show that it existed, but there was something that drew his attention. Certainly a blast that had killed the entire population of Pendragon would leave something behind but it was eerily silent, like the blast had obliterated any ghosts there as well. From his own experience, that had to be impossible. Suzaku had been around the refilled crater in Tokyo and the monuments that had sprung up through it, and there was nothing that prevented the ghosts from remaining. In fact, the family books said that it had been the most active place in Japan after Shinjuku and Aokigahara.

But the Britannian one was silent.

Suzaku leaned back in his seat, ignoring the complaints from his back. He could wait until they got to the building itself to stretch, especially since the driver had assured them that it wouldn’t be much longer. The important thing would be to get a good general read on the place as they approached.

He jerked his head away as Kaguya practically leaned into his lap, surprised that his cousin had looked away from her notes. She had been buried in them on the flight over, not even slowed down by the baby that had started crying halfway through. Suzaku couldn’t imagine what had captivated her for so long, especially when they seemed to have gone over every point at home and on the airplane. There was nothing left to find, but Kaguya was prodding at their research like there was something that they had missed.

Suzaku leaned further back as Kaguya pressed her finger against the window. “That’s it.”

The hushed tone of voice that she used made Suzaku expect to see a looming structure. Instead, he saw a manor house that looked something like an old Roman temple. The Aries Villa looked just like the pictures they had found of it, although the space that it was in looked emptier than some of the pictures. Suzaku was tempted to reach over and pull out some of the pictures that he had, but he was sure that there were fewer houses. Old Pendragon had been full of the mansions, all of them grand old things, but they were all gone save for a few and the few that remained didn’t look like they were privately owned.

A turn in the road took the villa from his sight, Suzaku sighing and looking back at his cousin. Kaguya was still staring intently out of the window, but she gave up a moment later. The papers rustled as she gathered them up, Kaguya staring down at them before shaking her head. “What do you think?”

Suzaku shrugged. He hadn’t expected the house to look haunted, even with the presence of a ghost. It took years for a building to really mimic the ghosts inside and a hundred years was just a blink of the eye for a ghost. And he wouldn’t be getting anything from the house, at least not until they had been there for a while; jet lag played havoc with his sensitivity.

Kaguya sighed, probably in response to his lack of an answer. Then again, she was used to hearing it. Kaguya flipped through the papers one more time before sliding them back into her bag. “I think that’s a lot of space to cover.”

“The ghost will have certain places he haunts more than others. The caretaker can help us with that.”

“Or we’ll be running around the entire mansion.” Kaguya didn’t look too disappointed by that idea, Suzaku shooting his cousin a grin.

He was thinking of another way to rib her when the car jerked abruptly to the right. Suzaku reached out to brace himself against the car door, feeling Kaguya knock against him before she righted herself. He looked up, catching sight of the man who had picked them up from the airport. The man looked away, muttering an apology to them.

Suzaku turned his head, his attention more on the tree lined drive that the car was cruising down. He thought he saw a few plinths where statues stood, but the statues had been knocked over. He thought he caught a glimpse of a few of the faces in the grass, but the places were too overgrown for him to see any features. Suzaku turned his attention to the mansion they were approaching.

The Aries Villa didn’t look any more deadly from the front, it just looked imposing. Suzaku closed his eyes, trying to get some sort of read on the place, but he still got nothing. He was still readjusting to the new place and the silence of the rest of the area was getting to him.

He opened his eyes as the car lurched to a stop, Suzaku catching himself against the door. He pushed himself away from the door, staring out the window.

The car had turned around the circle drive, giving Suzaku a good view of the fountain, but not of the house. He huffed and reached for his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he stepped out of the car.

He took a deep breath of the fresh air, glancing around the front yard of the villa before turning around. His view of the front of the house was blocked briefly as Kaguya got out of the car. His cousin stepped to the side, Suzaku surprised to see someone standing on the porch of the mansion.

For a moment he thought that they had found the ghost of the Demon Emperor. He fumbled for one of the talismans that he carried in his pocket, feeling his fingers brush over the protective charm that his mother had given to him. He curled his fingers around the charm, pressing it against his palm as he stared at the person descending from the porch.

Suzaku heard his cousin suck in a quick breath. He reached out to place his hand on the roof of the car, ready to start a countdown until they should move when their driver got out of the car.

The man nodded towards the man on the porch, Suzaku surprised by the almost bow that the man gave. “Julius.”

“Thank you for picking them up, Jeremiah.” Julius stepped down from the porch and walked down to the car. He stopped on the gravel, giving them a long look over. Suzaku noted the way that Julius didn’t completely turn his back on the building. Suzaku looked up to scan the house for any signs of movement.

He couldn’t see the ghost, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t lurking, or it just meant that Julius was wary of the house. Suzaku was sure that it was a good thing to be wary of the place.

Kaguya shifted her bag to shake the proffered hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kaguya and this is Suzaku.”

Suzaku came around the car, confused by the way that Julius stared for a while before taking his hand. The handshake was firm, Suzaku shivering as Julius’ fingers slid over his palm, trying to write it off as an accident. That didn’t stop him from curling his fingers towards his palm. He swallowed and looked up at the Aries Villa, barely listening to the pleasantries that were being exchanged. His gaze slid down the front of the building, Suzaku surprised to see a woman standing in the doorway.

He looked her over, partially expecting her to be a ghost. There was something about her stare that made a shiver run up his spine. The woman held his gaze for a moment, raising her eyebrow before she moved her attention to Julius. “Are you going to join the tour?”

Julius immediately tensed, Suzaku sure that he was going to run back towards the car and Suzaku wouldn’t blame him for it. Julius had been the latest victim of the Demon Emperor, he had every right to be wary of the place.

The woman didn’t seem to see Julius’ hesitation, her attention going back to him and his cousin. “Nunnally called and said she would be right over. That doesn’t leave us much time for a proper tour.”

Kaguya shrugged, a polite smile crossing her face. “We prefer to make our own explorations.”

The woman tipped her head in something like a nod. “Then I’ll show you to your rooms.”

She turned without a second glance at Julius, walking into the house. Suzaku could hear the click of her heels as he walked across the hardwood floor. The sound echoed strangely in the house, although it could have just been because he was on the outside. Suzaku hitched his bag over his shoulder, turning to look back at the car. Jeremiah was already unloading their other bags, Julius hovering close by. He met Julius’ gaze for a moment before he walked into the house.

His first proper look at the Aries Villa made him suck in a quick breath. The inside looked like the sets that Suzaku had seen in the period dramas that Kaguya loved to watch. He turned in a slow circle, tipping his head back to look at the ceiling. It was undecorated, but high. Suzaku huffed and hurried after Kaguya and the woman, catching up to them on the stairs.

The woman didn’t seem to notice him lagging. She had paused on the landing of the steps to gesture around. “The parlor is to your left, although I doubt that you’ll be in there often. So far, no one has sighted the ghost in there. Down the hall is the dining room, where you’ll be meeting with Nunnally and Queen Euphemia.”

“The queen?”

“Not Julius?”

Out of the two questions, the woman seemed to be amused by his the most. She raised her shoulder in a shrug, Suzaku taking that as the answer to his question. The woman turned back to Kaguya with a nod. “She was interesting in hearing what you were going to do. I’ve heard that she may have plans for this place.”

The woman brushed her hand over the bannister. The touch was almost loving, Suzaku sure that he saw a smile flicker across the woman’s face before she lifted her hand away. She used the same hand to gesture to the right. “The library and the great hall are over there. The villa has some books in its collection that can’t be found anywhere else, not even in the royal library. They might be useful despite being…eclectic.”

She paused after the word, glancing towards the open door. She didn’t remain still for long, turning to continue to walk up the stairs. “Your rooms will be close to the staircase. I can’t guarantee that they’re not habitual places for the ghost, but the records say that the ghost frequents them less than the others.”

“You have records?”

The woman nodded. “My family has looked after the Aries Villa since it has been moved to Britannia. We started noting down the incidents of a matter of course.”

Kaguya bounded eagerly up the steps. “Can we look at it?”

The woman shrugged. “It’s in the library like the others. Feel free to look and add if you want to.”

Kaguya shot him a smile, Suzaku nodding back. A record of where the ghost had been would help them figure out which rooms to set up the talismans. The more rooms they could narrow down the less running through the mansion they would have to do.

Suzaku ascended the rest of the stairs. He huffed at the sight of so many doors. He couldn’t imagine the need for so many rooms, especially when all of them were huge. The parties he had heard about must have been bigger than he had ever imagined. He let his gaze trail over to a portrait on the wall. He wasn’t sure how he felt about staying across the hall from the portrait of the Demon Emperor, but he doubted that the picture had meant to hang there. The picture had probably been taken from the palace when someone had gotten sick of seeing Lelouch’s face.

He tipped his head to the side, studying the portrait. It wasn’t like the pictures of the Demon Emperor, those had all been with Lelouch standing on a platform, staring down at his soldiers. This was something more personal, more human. And that might be their first problem to tackle.

Suzaku looked away from the portrait when he heard one of the doors open. Lucille held it open, looking at him with a raised eyebrow before gesturing inside. “Your room.”

He nodded and walked over to peer in, part of his attention on his cousin as she stepped into the room. She trailed her hand over one of the dressers. She didn’t jerk her hand away, moving along the wall until she reached the next door. Kaguya disappeared through the doorway, Suzaku stepping through the first door to keep his cousins in sight. His attention was taken by a third door, one on the opposite side of the room. Suzaku shifted to look at Lucille.

The caretaker’s attention was elsewhere, the woman staring down the hall. Suzaku was tempted to ask what she could see. If her family had records of the Demon Emperor, then there might be some latent talent in her family. It might not be strong, but it was better than nothing. Suzaku took a step forward, unnerved when Lucille abruptly turned her attention back to him. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, Suzaku shifting under her scrutiny. Her expression relaxed a moment later, Lucille looking disinterested again. “They’re adjoining, and probably the most put together of the others. Until the queen decides what to do with the villa my hands are tied.”

Suzaku tilted his head, trying to pick up any inflection in her voice, but it just sounded like she was annoyed. He and Kaguya were probably just another delay in a long progression of delays.

He gave the room a quick glance before walking out. He would leave the first room to Kaguya and take the other one for himself. He wanted some time to unpack before dinner, any excuse to keep moving after sitting so long on the plane.

Suzaku switched his bag to his other shoulder, jumping when he heard someone on the stairs. He figured that it was just Lucille moving to the next matter of business that she needed to take care of, but he had been in the business far too long to just ignore the sound. He still had scars on his right side from the other times that he had let his guard down. Suzaku edged towards the stairs, peering over the railing as he reached into his pocket. He curled his fingers around his protective charm. He had pulled it halfway out of his pocket when he spotted Julius on the landing.

The man turned to look at him, Suzaku surprised by the way that Julius gaze moved to something behind him. Suzaku twisted slightly, not surprised when he saw the portrait of the Demon Emperor. The sight of Lelouch would have been enough to stop anyone in their tracks.

Julius stared at the picture before shaking his head. “Think you can handle him?”

Suzaku shrugged. “Why not?”

“Because it took the combined forces of the world to bring him down before.”

“It only took Zero.”

Julius shook his head as he walked up the stairs. “Zero was just part of a bigger conspiracy. The Black Knights planted them in the right place for the assassination.” Julius flashed him a smile. “Their last Zero was killed at the end of the second Black Rebellion.”

“So who was the lucky person to kill the emperor?”

The question deflated Julius. He paused at the top of the staircase, his gaze going back to the portrait of Lelouch vi Britannia. Suzaku thought that he heard Julius make a sound, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

Julius shifted in place before shrugging. “That’s an answer I’ve been trying to find for years. I know Lelouch was Zero once, but no one knows which one.”

“There was more than one?”

Julius laughed, leaning back against the railing. He seemed to realize just where he was, Julius tensing and looking over his shoulder. The man leaned over the staircase, so far over that Suzaku was afraid that he would fall over then edge, and then they would have another ghost to deal with.

He sighed and looked at the portrait, studying the Demon Emperor. Having the picture so close only confirmed what he had first thought when he had seen Julius. There was a distinct family relationship, Suzaku seeming the similarity in the shape of their faces and the color of their eyes. Suzaku tipped his head to the side, his gaze sliding back over to Julius. It made sense since he was distantly related to Empress Nunnally vi Britannia. There was a good chance that the ghost had attacked Julius because of the resemblance. After all, Suzaku couldn’t imagine Lelouch taking kindly to anyone who looked like him.

He watched Julius sway in place, not sure if he should draw Julius’ attention back to him or not. Suzaku fingered the protection charm in his pocket, trying to ignore the feeling that the portrait was staring at him.

Suzaku pulled the charm out of his pocket, absently playing with it as he walked over to where Julius was leaning against the railing. He sighed, studying the portrait before shaking his head. “I’m having a hard time seeing it. He looks like a teenage boy. At his age, I was just trying to get through high school.”

“This is propaganda.” Julius gave the portrait a quick glance before looking away again. “Lelouch was just as bad as his father. He ended up killing more people than his father.”

Suzaku shook his head. He had heard of everything that the Demon Emperor, but it was enough to stupefy him every time. It was enough to make him wonder about what he had gotten him and Kaguya into. If the Demon Emperor had so much anger and hatred then why had his ghost taken so long to start causing trouble? That had to be a bad sign, if only Suzaku knew what to do about it.

He turned the charm over in his hands, glancing over at the two doors to the rooms. He briefly saw his cousin peek out before she darted back into the room. She was probably unpacking quickly and then changing into something more suitable for dinner. Suzaku was sure that she would be out to nag him into something more suitable for dinner with royalty, which meant that he would be safer out in the hall for a little while longer.

He turned his attention back to Julius when the man coughed. Julius shook her head. “I can’t believe you two are staying in this place.”

Suzaku shrugged. “We’ve stayed in worst places.”

“With worst ghosts?”

“There was a pretty bad one in Houska Castle, but we know how to protect ourselves.”

Julius’ gaze dipped down to the charm. “And a scrap of fabric will do that?”

Suzaku smiled and held up the charm. He was used to people questioning their methods. Westerners were always seemed to expect something more powerful than words on a piece of paper, and they were always amazed when they worked just as well as some of the methods that they considered backwards. He turned the charm over in his fingers. “This is insurance.”

“Will it work?”

“It’s never failed me before.” Suzaku smiled fondly at the charm. There were parts on its silk packaging that were worn from the gently rubbing of his thumb when he was nervous. It hadn’t worn through yet, something that Suzaku was grateful for. His mother had gotten him the charm, one that would extend to him the protection of the Kururugi Shrine and the gods that were worshipped there. He didn’t look forward to the day that he would have to replace the hand embroidered outer bag that his mother had made for him. He would miss the colorful phoenixes that had acted as his good luck charm.

He shifted the charm to his other hand, curling his fingers around it when he heard a creak from down the hall. Suzaku pushed away from the railing, frowning when he saw Lucille walk down the end of the hall. The caretaker didn’t bother to look back at them, continuing her steady pace forward.

Suzaku leaned back, shaking his head. The woman was going to throw him and Kaguya off, he could see that already. They were going to have to learn to figure out when it was Lucille and when it was the ghost, which would just make their job that much harder. He relaxed his hold on the charm, looking back over at Julius.

The man had retreated down the steps, clinging to the railing like it was the only thing holding him up. Even without a ghost appearing Julius didn’t step back up, he kept staring at the end of the hall like he expected something to come charging at them.

Suzaku sighed and turned his back on the hallway, watching Julius carefully. When the man continued to watch the hall, Suzaku stepped down to stand in front of him. Julius didn’t even flinch when he got close, but his fingers did tighten on the wooden railing. Suzaku resisted the urge to pry the fingers away from the railing, it wouldn’t do anything but panic the man. He sighed and looked down at the little charm in his hand.

It didn’t make sense that Julius would keep coming back to the house if he was so easily spooked, not that he didn’t have a reason to be. Neither he nor Nunnally had any reason to return to the Aries Villa, and yet they kept doing so. It was going to get the two of them in danger if they continued, and Suzaku’s gut told him that at least one of them would. Since that was the case, then he would have to make sure that his employers were protected as well.

He turned the charm over in his fingers one more time before slipping it between Julius’ fingers. The touch of the silk seemed to wake Julius up from his shock. His fingers curled around the packet before he stepped away. “What-”

“Take it.” The words slipped out more easily than Suzaku would have imagined.

He watched as Julius stared at the packet, not surprised when the man tried to hand it back. “No, you need it.”

“I have others. This is for your safety, yours and your sister's.”

“But-”

“Promise me you’ll have this around when either of you comes into the villa. It’ll protect you from the ghost.”

That seemed to win Julius over. The man looked at the charm one last time before tucking it into his pocket. When he looked up, Suzaku was surprised by the expression on Julius’ face. For a moment, it looked like the man wanted to say something, but he snapped his mouth shut quickly.

Julius turned on his heel and walked down the stairs, Suzaku assuming that he would go outside and wait for his sister. Suzaku watched him go, leaning on the railing.

He had expected it to be hard to just give the charm away, but he had no other choice. He couldn’t just let the two siblings die, not when it was completely preventable. It was only temporary, just until he and Kaguya could get something to protect the two. The sooner they did that, the sooner he would be able to get his own charm back.

All of that would have to wait until the preliminaries had been carried out. There was a dinner to sit through and then the house to case. Suzaku was sure that Kaguya wouldn’t want to stop their usual set up, not when they would be protecting themselves far better than any single charm.

He patted the railing before turning on his heel and walking up the stairs again. He could work out what he needed to do to make sure that Julius and Nunnally were protected more completely. Until then, he and Kaguya had other things to discuss.

* * *

Kaguya shifted in her chair, looking between the three Britannians arrayed on the other side of the table. She was sure that she was breaking some rule of etiquette, one that her mother wouldn’t have hesitated to point out. It was almost enough to make Kaguya wish that she had listened more to her mother instead of plotting the best way to sneak out to her aunt’s house to continue her other lessons, the ones she had considered more important. At least they had been, but Kaguya always felt slightly wrong footed when she was meeting with the rich, but at least she was better at hiding it than Suzaku.

Her cousin was obviously stiff in his chair, looking just like a statue. It was enough to make her want to elbow him to catch his attention.

They weren’t there to be judged. If anything, it was a business meeting, albeit with a crowned queen. That was a new experience unto itself.

Kaguya glanced down at her half-finished plate before gently pushing it aside. After spending a day on the plane she didn’t have much of an appetite. More than anything, she wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. But she couldn’t allow herself to do that, she still had to place basic protection around their rooms. She had no problems sleeping in a haunted place, but she wasn’t stupid enough to trust luck.

She took a deep breath, smiling as she let it out. At least the negotiations were familiar territory, something that Kaguya was sure that she could do in her sleep. She shifted into a more comfortable position, swinging her gaze between Nunnally and Queen Euphemia.

The queen hadn’t said much during their dinner, just collaborating the story that Nunnally had told. Other than that, she had remained silent, a surprise to Kaguya. She had expected something more boisterous, more like what she had seen from the nobles in the EU. The queen seemed more interested in listening to what was going on than inputting what she thought had to be done. It was Nunnally who had been leading the short discussion they had had before the food had come out.

Kaguya turned her attention to Nunnally, the young woman pushing her plate away as well. She drummed her fingers against the edge of the table before meeting Kaguya’s gaze. “Are you settling in comfortably?”

She almost laughed at the banal question, not expecting it. Kaguya bit her lip, settling for a nod. “It’s a nice place here.”

“Even with the ghost?”

“We’re used to it.” Kaguya waved off the worry with a flick of her fingers. “It’s part of the job.”

Nunnally took a deep breath, Kaguya noticing that her brother leaned over to grab her hand. She studied the two siblings for a moment, watching them interact. It was obvious that they were close, the two of them had been deferring to each other all dinner. They had done the same with the queen too, Kaguya surprised that the three of them were on such good terms. From what she had found, the Kingsley family had had their royal title formally revoked by Emperor Lance. Kaguya remembered reading something about the emperor considering them nothing more than commoners, but apparently that stigma was gone, at least for these three.

She studied the three of them as they took the statement in, noticing the way that Julius reached for something under the table before he jerked his hand away. Out of the three of them, Julius looked the most worried about her and Suzaku staying in the house, which was odd considering that only Nunnally and Euphemia had been in the mansion at night.

She cleared her throat, reaching out to gently set aside her glass of water. She used the cleared space to sketch out shapes with her fingers as she spoke. “We’re going to spend the first night taking precautionary measures. Ms. Lucille has told us that her family kept records of the ghost, so we intend to study those as well.”

Julius leaned forward slightly, Kaguya seeing his arm twitch with the motion. “So, you’re doing basic recon tonight?”

Kaguya nodded, ignoring the way that Suzaku leaned forward slightly as well. If her cousin wanted to say anything he would speak up, but there wasn’t anything different from the other cases that they had worked on.

“Exactly. We’ll focus on basic protections for ourselves before moving on to securing the house. Our plan is to start securing the rooms so the ghost can’t roam through the whole mansion. Considering the size of the place, it will take a while. During that time, we’ll also be looking into why the ghost has stuck around, we can’t get rid of it unless when know why it’s still here. That’s the important point, and the reason we’ll need access to anything you have on the Demon Emperor.”

Julius and Nunnally were quick to nod, but the queen was slower to respond. Euphemia chewed on her lip, staring down at the table. Kaguya watched as Euphemia’s fingers twitched against the edge of the table before she looked up at them. “You’ll be given access to anything that you need on a single condition. All of your work here needs to stay quiet, at least until the ghost is gone.”

Kaguya raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. Her silence seemed to encourage Euphemia to keep speaking, the queen folding her hands and setting them on the edge of the table.

“The people might panic if they hear that the Demon Emperor is back, even if it’s just his ghost. It’s a risk I’m not willing to take.”

There was a quiver in Euphemia’s voice, one that Kaguya couldn’t quite place. She did know that it wasn’t the entire truth, not that Euphemia had to tell them everything. There were bound to be political implications, ones that Kaguya was more than happy to avoid. She and Suzaku were just there to deal with a ghost, not get involved in Britannian politics.

She nodded, glad to see that the agreement made the queen relax. “It’s not our habit to sensationalize what we’re going, not unless we were hired for that reason.”

“Thank you.” The words almost came out as a sigh. Euphemia relaxed her grip on the table, her hands sliding out of sight. “I’ll have passes waiting for you when you want to visit the royal archives.”

Kaguya nodded her thanks, giving Suzaku a quick glance. As she expected, he didn’t look too enthusiastic about spending days buried in the royal archives, but she didn’t want to leave him alone in the house. He might not have gotten a read on the house yet, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t come to her own conclusions.

The house might have looked pleasant, but there was something about the place that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She was sure that she had been watched a few times, and not just by the caretaker. The attentive feeling that had followed her through the house hadn’t come into the dining room, but Kaguya was sure that it would continue as soon as they left.

There was no question that the ghost knew that they were there, but it wasn’t any aggression, not that the ghost’s attitude towards them couldn’t change. It was just unnerving to know that the ghost was watching them just as much as they were watching him.

She turned to look at Suzaku, hoping that he would have a better read of the place. By the way that he was looking over the three Britannians, his attention was elsewhere. She could almost believe that he was trying to get a reading of the place, but she knew that he would be useless for that for another day or two. They would have to rely on other methods until then, not that Kaguya minded. It would give them the time to do the set up that they needed. The only question was what Suzaku was actually doing.

She watched her cousin’s hand twitch against his leg once before it went still. Kaguya sighed, leaving Suzaku to whatever he was working through. The two of them would talk soon enough. Until that point, there were still a few more things to cover.

Kaguya twisted slightly to look back towards the dining room doors. She didn’t know who she was looking for, but she scanned the open doors carefully. It wouldn’t matter if the caretaker overheard them, the woman deserved to know what would be happening. The one that Kaguya was worried about was the ghost. It might not understand exactly what they were doing, but she wasn’t willing to believe that he would let them just get away with anything. They would have to be careful, at least until they knew exactly what they were dealing with.

The hall remained empty, Kaguya looking back over at the others. She allowed herself a quick breath of relief before she focused on the three again. “Until we know what is going on, I’m going to have to ask you to stay away.”

Nunnally perked up, scooting her wheelchair closer to the table. “Why?”

“Because the ghost has already targeted the two of you. Until we know why, it would be better for the two of you to avoid the villa. You should stay away too, your highness. It’s for the best to keep you out of harm’s way.” Kaguya thought she saw a look of relief cross Euphemia’s face. “We’ll meet with you outside, to keep us all just that bit safer.”

She was glad that none of them questioned why she and Suzaku were allowed to stay. Out of everyone involved with the Aries Villa, she would prefer that only a few people remained in the mansion. She and Suzaku could take care of themselves and she had a feeling that the caretaker wouldn’t be bothered by the ghost. She had been fine during the other attacks and, if the records showed that her family had weathered the other times Lelouch had started acting up, then Lucille was probably immune. The Demon Emperor probably thought of the family as part of the background, something that they could use to their advantage.

It wasn’t the best plan, but she had been doing the job too long to believe that everything would go according to plan from the start. They were dealing with one of the best battle strategists in the world. It didn’t matter that Lelouch was dead, that intelligence would still be there and that was perhaps the most frightening aspect of the job.

Kaguya swallowed and tightened her grip on her skirt. She didn’t allow the flash of fear to show on her face, not with their employers sitting across from them. Admitting defeat too early had killed people, Kaguya had seen in while they had been working in the Ancient Ram Inn. She just had to keep her confidence up and ignore the feeling of eyes on the back of her neck. The feeling wouldn’t be around for much longer, especially as soon as they started to block off the rooms to the ghost.

Julius was the one to break the silence, the man standing up. Kaguya was surprised when her cousin stood up too, flicking her gaze over to Suzaku. Her cousin blushed, looking away from the two of them.

If Julius noticed, he didn’t mention it. Kaguya saw the man play with something in his hand before he tucked the hand back into his pocket. Julius smoothed his hand over the side of his leg, his gaze distant for a moment. It took his sister tugging at his other hand to come back to himself.

The man cleared his throat and nodded towards the door. “We’ll let you get to your work then.”

There was no other response but to nod, Kaguya glancing at the two girls. Euphemia and Nunnally looked surprised by Julius’ announcement, but they didn’t argue.

Kaguya scrambled to her feet as Euphemia stood up, offering the queen an abbreviated bow as she came around the table. She was surprised by the smile that Euphemia gave her as the queen breezed past. Kaguya was sure that the smile was in thanks, even though they hadn’t done anything yet.

She straightened up, watching as the three of them walked out of the dining room. She thought she saw Julius look over his shoulder at Suzaku, raising her eyebrow at the look. Kaguya turned to give her cousin an appraising look, not surprised when Suzaku didn’t respond. He was more focused on the door.

Kaguya turned back to look at the three, her eyes widening when she saw Lucille appear seemingly out of nowhere. The caretaker spoke to the three, motioning up the corridor for them. Lucille met Kaguya’s gaze for a moment before she trailed after the others.

The look that Lucille had given her was hard to unpack, Kaguya pondering over it before deciding to ignore it. There were other things for her and Suzaku to do, things that couldn’t wait for much longer if they wanted to remain safe.

She reached out to tug on Suzaku’s sleeve. She tugged again when he didn’t verbally respond, tipping her head up to look at her cousin. He was still looking after the three Britannians, but she didn’t know which one occupied his attention. She grubbed under her breath at his distraction, getting a better hold on Suzaku’s arm before walking away.

Suzaku took a few short steps after her before he snapped out of his thoughts. He pulled his arm away from her, falling into step by her side. It was a relief to have him back with her, Kaguya ignoring the twisting in her stomach.

It would take him a while to be able to feeling what was going on in the house. As much as she needed that information, she didn’t want it to happen. Even with her limited talent she could feel that something was off, something lurking and looming over everything now they were out in the dining room. The feeling just made protection for their rooms more important. As long as they could sleep through the night they would be able to continue with their plan. Starting to put talismans in the other rooms might dampen what Suzaku would feel from the house, but it would be worth it. She would have a partner that was with her instead of lost in whatever lingered in the house.

Kaguya might have been sure that the spirit of the Demon Emperor could be exorcised, but she was sure that she wouldn’t be able to do it on her own.

* * *

Suzaku trailed his hand over the large desk in the library, tipping his head to read the titles of the books that had been stacked there. He raised an eyebrow when he realized that they were all history books, most of them specifically pertaining to the reign of Emperor Lelouch.

He paused at the end of the desk, tempted to reach for the books, but he stopped himself. He had another mission that he had to take care of first. Kaguya had asked him to find the records that Lucille had talked about before, a task that Suzaku had vastly underestimated.

The library in the Aries Villa was huge, Suzaku tipping his head back to look at the second story of books. He couldn’t read the titles towards the top of the shelves, but he was able to get glimpses of a few titles closer to him. It was an eclectic collection, probably because the monarchs had just moved the books they no longer desired into the old house. Suzaku thought he saw a few diaries of monarchs on the shelves, stepping forward before he stopped himself.

The record book was the important thing because they had to plan out their assault for the next day. They had to figure out the rooms that the ghost never frequented to save them time and effort when they went through the mansion. There was no point in putting talismans in a room when the ghost would never enter it. A better focus would just help them in the end.

Suzaku let his fingers slide off the edge of the desk, starting to search the room in earnest.

The records book wouldn’t be somewhere on the second floor of shelves, that would be too far out of the way for the caretaker. They would have put it somewhere that they could easily get to it and write the next entry. Suzaku scanned the room before shrugging and walking around the back of the desk. It only made sense for the book to be there, it was the only place with any kind of writing implement.

He dropped to a crouch behind the desk, running his fingers over the spines of the books. Suzaku focused on the books without a title on the spine. The record couldn’t be more than a notebook, especially if it was ongoing.

Suzaku muttered to himself as he moved along the bottom shelf, moving quickly to the next one. Luckily, most of the books were titled, leaving him with only a few to pull out from the shelf. He removed them carefully from their places, flipping through the pages before shaking his head.

It wasn’t until he had moved to the other side of the fireplace and the desk that he found what he was looking for.

The records book was a medium sized, red leather bound book. Suzaku flicked through the first couple of pages, taking a step back when he realized what he was holding.

The first half of the book was filled with carefully noted sightings, the handwriting alternating between careful and sloppy. Suzaku tipped his head to the side, glancing between two entries that were spaced five years apart, both in the same handwriting. He shook his head and brought the book over to the desk, still flipping through it.

He had started a good way into the sightings, Suzaku having to lean close to the pages to see some of the penciled in entries. All of them weren’t laid out in the same way. Some of them were long and took up most of the page while others were written out in short, clipped sentences.

Suzaku sighed and let his head drop. The records book was exactly what they needed, but it would take someone reading through it to take note of the rooms that they would have to focus on, meaning that the duty would fall to him. Kaguya was occupied with securing their rooms, applying the protection spells and talismans that they would need to keep the ghost out. The work would go faster with two people, but Suzaku always found his tongue tripping over the words that were needed. In the end, he was more of a nuisance than anything. Words of power in the moment was one thing, but spells and protections that would last was something that he had never been able to do.

He reached for his pocket, pulling his hand back at the last moment. As soon as Kaguya was finished with their rooms, he would ask her about further protections for the others. He didn’t think that staying out of the villa would be enough, not if the ghost got really determined. His own charm might be enough to protect one of them, but not both Nunnally and Julius and certainly not Queen Euphemia. It would be hard to keep the whole affair quiet if the ghost started killing people again. Two members of the Kingsley family would make people suspicious, but the queen herself would draw attention. If the ghost killed the queen, then all hell would break loose.

And maybe that’s what the ghost wanted. The country would fall apart but Suzaku doubted that Lelouch would care. It would be revenge against everyone who had killed him and the people who had reviled him after his death.

It was an explanation that made sense, but Suzaku wouldn’t depend on it. Until they encountered the ghost they wouldn’t know how much intelligence that it had left. For all they knew, the ghost could be acting out of something more like instinct than any kind of plan.

Suzaku lifted his head, turning his attention back to the book. He was still at a random page, but it was better than nothing. He could at least start to narrow the list down.

He leaned his cheek on his hand, squinting at the small handwriting that marched carefully across the page.

_‘Active on the upper levels. Spotted him pacing the hallways and going in and out of the rooms. Nobles report that they’ve seen him with increased frequency in the right wing. No one has followed, but I assume that he’s hovering around the suites there. Room changes have been made to avoid confrontation, but I have been unable to change things as I’d like.’_

_‘Lance has given Lionel the room.’_

_‘Lionel was killed in the suite. The emperor is demanding a period of mourning for Lionel under his title of Zero.’_

_‘He is still active and very protective of the suite. Avoid further incidents by making sure it’s off limits.’_

_‘Sightings have calmed down to normal levels. He’s sticking close to the suite still, but the normal patterns have resumed, probably because all of the guests have left. I will be doing a check and seeing if I can coax him into his usual spots.’_

_‘Could not be coaxed.’_

Suzaku sat back and rubbed his eyes. The entries were a bit bare, but it was more than he had expected. While the rooms that he had read about weren’t specific, it was something that he could definitely use. Any questions that they had could be answered by Lucille. The caretaker was bound to know what her ancestors were referring to.

He glanced around the desk, pulling what looked like a discarded memo pad closer to him. He would need to mark down all of the rooms mentioned and mark off how many times that Lelouch’s ghost had been spotted in them. Tomorrow, he and Kaguya could work their way down the list.

Suzaku winced when he knocked a pencil off the desk, twisting in the chair to grab it. As he bent down, he heard the library door creak open.

He froze with his fingers hovering over the pencil, holding his breath as he listened. There was no guarantee that the ghost would make a sound, but a human would. Suzaku relaxed slightly as the floorboards creaked, sitting up only to jerk back in his seat.

He had expected to see Lucille or Kaguya, not to find Julius standing by one of the bookcases.

The Britannian turned his gaze away from the books, giving Suzaku a long look. Suzaku didn’t have time to think over the look before Julius smiled, the expression odd. He didn’t think that Julius had smiled once at him during their time in the villa, probably out of nervousness.

Suzaku stood up, resting his hand protectively over the book of records that he had found. He didn’t know why, especially considering that Julius would know all about the deaths that had happened in the villa. Suzaku curled his fingers against the page, eventually lifting his hand away when Julius went back to studying the shelf.

When Julius didn’t acknowledge him again Suzaku stepped around the desk, approaching the man. He saw Julius glance at him, but the man quickly went back to trailing his fingers over the books. Suzaku thought he heard Julius muttering under his breath, the man’s lips moving before he stopped, his finger hovering above the spine of a book.

Suzaku took the pause as a chance to clear his throat. “I thought you and Nunnally had already left.”

Julius flinched, throwing what looked like a guilty look over his shoulder. He sighed the next moment, pulling the book off the shelf and holding it carefully as he turned around. It took him a moment to meet Suzaku’s gaze, Julius seeming to prefer looking at the detail work on the book itself. “Nunnally left something behind. Lucille is helping her find it.”

Suzaku shook his head, about to speak when Julius held out the book like some kind of offering. “I understand that you want us out of the building, but I couldn’t talk Nunnally out of it. Besides, you said the charm would help.”

“I said it would keep you safer.”

“We won’t be here that long.” Julius held out the book like a peace offering. When Suzaku didn’t immediately take it, Julius stepped around him. Suzaku pivoted with him, watching as Julius set the book down on the table. The man cocked his hip against the edge of the table, watching Suzaku carefully.

The scrutiny should have been enough to annoy him, but it felt like a challenge; that and the way that the corner of Julius’ mouth twitched up in something almost like a smile.

Suzaku huffed and walked over to the table, leaning against it to stare at the title of the book that Julius had picked out. “ _A History of the Reign of Lelouch vi Britannia_?”

Julius nodded, mirroring Suzaku’s pose. “I think you’ll find it relevant, just like the others.”

“Thanks.” Suzaku chuckled and looked over at Julius. “This is a lot of effort for someone who hates this place.”

He thought he saw surprise flicker across Julius’ face, but it was gone quickly. Julius cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s not about hatred, it’s about protecting Nunnally.” Julius went silent for a moment, his fingers tightening on his sleeves before he shook his head. “Something in here hurt her, and I want to make sure it never gets the chance to again.”

Suzaku was surprised at the vehemence that he heard in Julius’ voice. It made his original assessment of the man as standoffish and not interested in what they were doing completely wrong.

He tilted his head, catching a flash of something in Julius’ eyes before sighing. “You’ll be putting yourself in danger.”

“If I don’t then how can I expect anyone else to?”

Suzaku shook his head. He could understand Julius’ need to keep his sister safe, but he was not about to have the man throw himself into danger, not when he and Kaguya could handle the situation better.

He went to step away from the table, surprised when Julius reached out and caught his hand. Suzaku twisted to look down at the hand holding his, feeling Julius’ hand shake for a moment before the man got a hold of himself. He looked up to meet Julius’ gaze, surprised at the desperation that he saw there.

“Please, Suzaku.”

He had seen that same look on desperate people before; people who just wanted a moment of peace without a ghost looming over them, people who knew what was in their house was dangerous. He could still remember the way that his mother would pat his head and tell him that it was their job to help people, because this was only something that they could do. That it was their job to keep them safe and out of harm’s way. But he could also remember his own fear when his mother would leave to work on a case, and the way he hated feeling so useless. Knowing that he could do nothing to help had just made the fear worse.

Suzaku nodded slowly, watching as the relief spread across Julius’ face. Julius squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”

The man let go of his hand, Suzaku shivering as Julius’ fingers slid over his palm. Julius must have realized what he had done too, because he was quick to avert his eyes, but his hand still hovered close.

It took more effort than Suzaku expected to take a step back and put distance between the two of them. Suzaku swallowed and looked up, expecting to see some kind of shock or apology on Julius’ face. Instead he saw something like wonder.

The expression was quickly wiped off Julius’ face, the man turning his attention towards the book. He flicked through the pages, pausing when he found something that he deemed important. Julius turned and gestured with smooth hand motion.

For a moment, Suzaku was tempted to shake his head and focus on the records. He and Kaguya would need the list of room more than any general information about the Demon Emperor. After all, the man was well known enough for him and Kaguya to work with. Still, it was hard to say no.

Suzaku stepped up beside Julius again, careful to keep some space between the two of them. He was relieved that Julius didn’t push the point. He looked down at the page, struck by the picture of Lelouch there. It looked like a candid shot, Suzaku tipping his head as he studied it. The picture was another one that made Lelouch look just like a teenager, nothing like the monster that he actually was.

He glanced over at Julius out of the corner of his eye, more convinced by the family resemblance than ever. He quickly looked away, clearing his throat. “What did you want to show me?”

“This here.” Julius moved forward to point at a paragraph. Their hands slid together again, but Suzaku barely noticed the contact in favor of reading what Julius had pointed out.

The paragraph detailed what had happened after the assassination of Emperor Lelouch, from the body being retrieved and carried to the mansion the emperor had lived in, to his internment in the royal cemetery. Suzaku’s gaze lingered on a picture of the mausoleum on the opposite page before he shook his head, going to look over the page again.

When he didn’t say anything, he heard Julius sigh. The man leaned closer, tapping his finger against the part of the paragraph that dealt with the immediate position of the emperor’s body. When Julius spoke, it was closer to his ear than Suzaku expected. He shot Julius a glance, but that man didn’t seem to notice; all of his attention was on the paragraph.

“‘The cleaning of the body and the initial resting place was in the Scarlet Room of what was then Lady Devlin’s mansion in Tokyo, Japan. The body remained there for a day and a half until it was shipped back to Britannia under cover. One of Empress Nunnally’s first orders was a strict watch over her brother’s body and for it to remain hidden until she could raise a proper grave for him.’ The house hasn’t been changed since it has come over.”

Suzaku stared at Julius for a moment before he grinned. “The Scarlet Room is still here.”

Julius nodded, a smile crossing his face. Suzaku found himself mirroring it.

If the mansion was the same as it had been, then he and Kaguya might not have to ask the caretaker to dog their heels through the house. Lucille had to have more important things to do than follow them around, especially after the house had just been cleared. The only thing they would need her for was identifying the rooms that were vaguely mentioned in the records.

He took a step back, running his hand through his hair. He turned and walked back to the desk, picking up the Clarissant records. Suzaku skimmed through the pages, catching proper names to rooms, more than enough to look up on the maps of the house or just by looking into them.

Suzaku groped behind him for a pencil, looking up as soon as he had grabbed it. He expected to see Julius still at the table, but there was no one there. He frowned and looked over at the door, catching sight of Julius sweeping his way out of the room as Lucille entered.

Suzaku was surprised by the suspicious look that Lucille shot Julius. She watched the man until he was out of her sight, only then did she step further into the library.

She made her way over to the table, glancing at the book. If anything, the sight of it just made her narrow her eyes more. Lucille reached out to shut the book, Suzaku watching as her fingers curled around the edge of it.

He swallowed and dropped the pencil back on the desk, flinching when the sound drew her attention towards him. Suzaku shut the records book, nodding towards the door. “Did Nunnally find what she left behind?”

Lucille didn’t answer immediately, she just stared at him. Her gaze unnerved him, a completely steady look that was uncomfortable to stand under.

Suzaku leaned back as Lucille approached him, crossing into his personally space. Suzaku fully expected her to brace herself against the desk and trap him there. Instead, she just stood in front of him, staring him down. After a moment, she tipped her head, Suzaku feeling her gaze drop down to his hip before it jerked back up.

Whatever she had seen in his face seemed to be enough because she took a step back. “For a professional, you’re not too good at your job.”

Suzaku stared at her, watching as Lucille walked away. It took him a while to gather his wits enough to speak up. “What?”

Lucille turned around, backing out of the library as she fixed him with her strange stare again. “I’m telling you to watch yourself, boy. This place has more secrets than you could ever imagine. Remember that if you want to get out of here alive.”

She was gone before he could ask her anything else. Suzaku stared at the door, shaking his head slowly. Her behavior was an abrupt change from the overworked caretaker that he had thought of her as.

He licked his lips, looking down at the book as he felt cold settle around him. Suzaku shivered and tucked the record book against his side, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in the library. Out of habit, he reached for his charm only to jerk his hand away when he remembered that he had given it away. He would have to ask for it back, especially if what Lucille said was true.

He swallowed, glancing around the library before striding out into the hall. Kaguya would nearly be done with their rooms, which meant that they could go through the records together. More importantly, it meant that he could get away from the presence that he could feel forming in the room.


	5. Chapter Four: Harbinger

“But since such  
Supernatural things  
Are life to those who believe,  
And death to those who ignore,  
Let what by natural steps  
Reason has acquired  
From promises beget  
Doubts and prophecies.”   
– _In arboris/Tuba scre fidei/Virgo Sum_ , Philippe De Vitry

* * *

Kaguya paused in the center of the hallway, staring down at the blueprints of the house. She had found a copy in the library with the materials that Lucille had laid out, the same materials that Suzaku hadn’t brought up with him the night before. Then again, she couldn’t blame him, not with the treasure trove that they had found in the record book.

She reached up to rub at her eye, biting her lip to keep from yawning. The record book had kept them up all night, the two of them taking a page each as they had read through the sightings of the Demon Emperor over the past one hundred years. Some of the descriptions of the rooms were vague, but it was far better than some of the reports that they had worked from. Too often they were stumbling along with old, half remembered legends as their only reference. It had never hurt them before, but it had extended their hunts. Kaguya was sure that they would be able to make it out of the Aries Villa in record time. Kaguya was glad about that.

The Aries Villa was a marvelous old house, the one that Kaguya would have loved to walk through it on a tour. There was something about the splendor of royal family that was attractive.

There were plenty of stories about the Emperor of Japan from before the Britannian invasion. Her mother had taken her on tours of the old palace in Kyoto and what had survived of Edo Castle. The sights had been wondrous to behold, if a little sad. There hadn’t been an emperor in Japan since 2010. The fear of what Charles had done and what Lelouch had done, was too strong to overcome.

Kaguya reached out to rest her hand on the wall, staring at the wallpaper pattern. It was a shame that the Aries Villa had been left empty like the imperial palaces, all because of Lelouch.

“Kaguya?” She jumped at the sound of her name, looking over at her cousin.

Suzaku had paused halfway down the hall, his head tilted slightly. He raised an eyebrow at her and held up the list that they had made in one of Kaguya’s notebooks. “You still with me?”

She nodded and pushed away from her hall to walk beside him. She held the blueprints in front of them, looking down the hallway that they were standing in.

They were directly opposite their rooms, just past the top of the stairwell. Kaguya glanced over her shoulder to look into the entrance hall, catching a glimpse of the caretaker as Lucille went about her business. Kaguya couldn’t help but watch the woman go, her interest piqued.

Lucille’s family had been working in the villa for generations, so there had to be things that they weren’t being told. There had to be plenty of stories about the place, ghost or not. When the ghost was added in, it was more interesting, because the family had been in the Aries Villa just as long as the ghost but nothing had happened to them. She and Suzaku had gone through the entire book and there wasn’t any indication that any of the caretakers had died because of the ghost. There had been a note when the job changed over, but it was nothing more than a name before the next entry.

Kaguya leaned out until she couldn’t see Lucille any longer, and then she shook her head. They were halfway down the list of rooms, moving much faster than Kaguya had thought. Lelouch seemed to have a specific pattern, something she was grateful for in such a large house. The ghost seemed to have stuck to the second floor, something that surprised Kaguya. The last month of Lelouch’s reign had been filled with decrees and head hunts for the people who had escaped from the Battle of Mount Fuji. She had thought that most of that business would have been taken care of in the great hall, meaning that the ghost would be there. Instead, he seemed to drift between three upstairs rooms, a room towards the back of the house and the entrance hall. The arrangement didn’t make much sense, but ghosts often didn’t.

She turned to brace the map against the wall. She smoothed it out, resting her fingers against the two upstairs rooms that they had explored. The first they had been to was in the same wing as their rooms, a brightly painted room that was marked as nursery on the map. Kaguya assumed that the bright color scheme had stuck after the room was converted from a nursery. The nursery room had been mentioned in the early entries, back when Empress Nunnally had used the Aries Villa just as much as she had used the imperial palace. There were plenty of entries from Grace Clarissant about finding the ghost standing over whatever royal child had been in the room. The very idea made her shiver.

To have the ghost of the brother who had hated and used his sister hovering over her children should have been enough to get Empress Nunnally to never allow her children in the villa. Then again, no harm had ever come to them. In fact, there hadn’t been a problem with the ghost until later, when all five of Nunnally’s children had grown up.

Kaguya bit her lip before shaking her head, taking out a pencil and marking the copy of the blueprints. She scooted her hand over, staring at the other room they had covered. She marked off the Empress’ Room as well, frowning as she leaned back.

There were two rooms on the map marked as the Empress’ Room. Kaguya was tempted to think of it as a mistake, except that one was back in the left wing, close to the old elevator and the other one was in the other wing of the house. With the rooms on opposite sides of the house the only thing that made sense was that there had been two different empresses who had taken up residence in the Aries Villa. The first room had to have been Empress Nunnally’s room, the one closest to the elevator. Kaguya didn’t know if Emperor Lance had ever had an official empress, but there was always a chance that Lance had indulged himself in unofficial ones. They had already tagged the one she assumed had been Empress Nunnally’s and it wouldn’t hurt to make sure the other was covered as well.

Kaguya tucked the pencil back into her bun, tapping her finger against the next Empress’ Room. “Two more and then we’re downstairs.”

“I thought we already did that one.”

“Is the list specific?” The sheepish look that she got from her cousin was enough of an answer.

She sighed and started to roll the blueprints up again. It was on the tip of her tongue to say to split up, but she curbed the urge. There was no telling where the ghost was, the feeling of _something_ watching permeated the entire building. She didn’t want to be alone in the face of that and she was sure that Suzaku didn’t want to either. Besides, the two of them did their best work when they were together.

Kaguya tucked the blueprints under her arm, gesturing ahead of her. “It’s the room just to the right.”

The words had barely left her mouth before Suzaku was moving. Kaguya huffed and hurried after her cousin. She lifted her hand to point to the room that they were going to, the direction ignored when Suzaku stopped a room earlier.

She came to a stop beside Suzaku, watching as he reached out to touch the door only to pull his hand back. Suzaku stared at his hand for a moment before shaking his head. “There’s something here.”

“What room is it?”

Suzaku shrugged, leaving Kaguya to scramble for the blueprint. She stopped reaching for the roll of paper when Suzaku opened the door and went to step in.

She lunged forward, grabbing onto his sleeve with a growl. “Wait!”

It took him a moment to stop, and even then he looked back at her with a blank stare. Kaguya squeezed his arm hard, only letting up when she felt him flinch. Suzaku jerked in her hold, Kaguya careful to not let him go. When she was sure that she had him back, she leveled and even stare at her cousin. “What are you doing?”

“We need to check this room, right? It’s the Emperor’s Room.”

Kaguya shook her head. It didn’t matter what room they tackled first, she had just been avoiding the Emperor’s Room out of nervousness. From all the records they had seen, the ghost was more likely to appear in the Emperor’s Room. That’s where it had appeared for Nunnally and that’s where Julius had been found when he had been attacked. Kaguya wanted to put off an attack for as long as possible, mostly because she didn’t want to face that defeat. There were still a few things to check before they faced the ghost, and Kaguya wanted that to be on their terms.

She had hoped that narrowing down the rooms that the ghost could hide in without being ensnared by their traps. After all of their work in the second level of the house, Kaguya had hoped that the ghost would start hiding downstairs, just to avoid them. It was a strategy that had always worked before.

Kaguya frowned when Suzaku started pulling away from her, digging her heels in to pull him back. “Wait.”

“Why?”

“You said you felt something in the room.”

Suzaku glanced back at her, seeming surprised by the statement. He looked back at the door, pressing his hand against it. Kaguya saw his fingers curl against the wood, but that was no sign of anything amiss.

He stood with his hand against the door for a while longer before shaking his head. “There’s nothing.”

“But you said-”

“It feels like the rest of the house.”

Kaguya shook her head as she stared at her cousin. She might not have his sensitivity, but something about the room put her on edge. The rest of the house might have felt like something was watching her, but the room seemed like the center.

She bit her lip, reaching for her pocket to touch the charm that her aunt had made for her, a match to the one that Suzaku carried. It wouldn’t help stop the ghost, but it made her feel better. It was a small bubble of protection, enough that would allow her to get out of a confrontation alive or drag Suzaku out after her. It was a small bit of comfort in a house that was rubbing on her nerves the longer she stayed inside it.

Still, the irritation was a familiar feeling. Every place they had visited started out like that, but those places usually had more than one ghost.

Kaguya pulled her hand out of her pocket, rubbing her hand down her jeans. She could feel Suzaku’s stare going from amused to concerned the longer she stood in the center of the hall. Kaguya glanced down the hall, looking at the Empress’ Room. It would be so easy to duck in and affix their traps and spells in place, far easier than walking into whatever was waiting for them in the room in front of them.

The worrying thing was that Suzaku was acting like everything was fine. Kaguya didn’t know if he really couldn’t tell the difference between the room and the rest of the house, or if she had just run him for too long. They had been working a while without a break, and she knew what travel did for Suzaku’s sensitivity. He had to recalibrate to wherever they were, and that took time, longer with the way that things were going. For all she knew, he wasn’t sensing anything, and then they would be down a valuable asset.

She looked up when the door creaked open. Suzaku had pushed it slightly open, her cousin twisting slightly to look back at her. There wasn’t a challenge in his gaze, just concern.

Kaguya swallowed and peered into the room, glancing around. In the daylight, it didn’t look too bad, just like any other bedroom. The four poster looked a bit grander than some of the others, but it was stripped just as bare. The linens in the room were missing, leaving just a desk in the far corner and what looked like a chaise lounge near the window, across from the bed. The wooden floor was discolored near the center, probably from where a rug had been laid down before the villa had been cleaned. It was just another room.

It still felt like death.

She shivered and stepped into the room, keeping close to the wall as she looked around. Nothing was appearing, but the ghost could be taking its time. It had been content to watch them so far, so there was no telling what it would do.

Kaguya fingered the slips of paper that she had brought with them, all of them with carefully written prayers or words of power. All of them would be base markers for the trap and alert system. The pattern was simple, something that could be thrown up quickly for capture or defense. The whole point of the pattern was that it was quick. That still didn’t help her nervousness.

She tucked the roll of the blueprint under her arm, moving over to one of the walls. She found herself trying to be as quiet as possible as she walked, like any sound would call out the ghost. Kaguya wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or not, but the feeling of being watched increased.

Kaguya shivered and placed the first piece of paper on the wall, taping it in place and smoothing it down. The blue painter’s tape ruined the image of serious work being done, but it was an adjustment that had had to be made when they were working on older houses. The condition of the house was just as important as getting the ghost out, considering most of them had historic value.

Kaguya smoothed the strip of paper one more time before stepping away. She turned to look at Suzaku, watching as he moved along the opposite wall. Suzaku trailed his fingers along the chair rail that ran along the lower portion of the wall, an almost distant look in his eye. Maybe he was starting to feel what was in the room, which just proved her theory that they had been pushing too hard.

He paused across from her, turning to look at her. He had a blank look on his face, Kaguya sure that Suzaku didn’t even see her. He looked at her for a moment before his gaze slid over to the bed. Suzaku took a step away from the wall before coming to a stop.

“He was here.”

“Lelouch?”

Suzaku nodded distractedly, his gaze not wavering from the bed. “And the other.”

Kaguya bit her lip, considering what her cousin had said. Suzaku had said that Lelouch’s body had been laid out in the Scarlet Room, the one room downstairs. The only other person who they had a record of dying in the room was one Lionel Strickland.

She swallowed and took a step forward. “Who else?”

“The imposter.”

Kaguya was surprised by the vehemence in Suzaku’s voice. Usually he would get vague impressions from a room or a place, but emotions were rare. Then again, the Aries Villa was relatively new, the ambient emotions might be stronger.

She licked her lips and stepped forward, ready to reach out and ground him if he went too far into what the room was showing him. “Suzaku?”

Suzaku shook his head and looked away from the bed. He took a few deep breaths before moving away, Kaguya watching him closely. He didn’t look like he was back to normal, but he seemed to be shaking off whatever had held him.

She turned away to find the next point in the room, carefully listening for her cousin’s movements. The room might not have held the ghost, but it had something that was pulling at Suzaku, all the more reason to get out. She didn’t want to push their luck, not when she could easily picture her uncle lying in the hospital bed.

Kaguya smoothed the next piece of paper into place, taking a deep breath. The oppressive feeling in the room was easing a fraction, but it wasn’t the release that she had thought. She didn’t know if they were lucky to have found the ghost’s preferred area so soon, or if they were pushing in over their heads. Kaguya pressed the tape into place, smoothing out the bumps as she considered the question.

A click from behind her startled her out of her thoughts. She turned around, her mouth dropping open when she saw a portion of the wall slide open, her gaze dropping down to the carving that had been disguised as a handle. Kaguya took a step forward, wanting to see what was in the room only to have Suzaku block her view. Her cousin stepped into the room, letting go of the doorknob.

Kaguya stepped forward, intending to peer over his shoulder. She reached out for the door only to see something out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t get the chance to see what it was, getting a flash of red eyes before the door slammed shut.

She jumped backward, dropping the papers and the blueprint in favor of clutching at her protective charm. Kaguya pulled it halfway out of her pocket before she stopped, glancing around the room.

Whatever it had been, it was no longer there. The oppressive presence has lessened to the point where Kaguya could believe that they were just in another room of a haunted house. Which meant that the ghost had been in the room the entire time they had been there, and it had been waiting.

Kaguya swallowed, inching closer to the door. She kept a tight hold on the charm with one hand as she reached for the door with the other. She closed her hand around the doorknob, taking a deep breath before pulling on it, only for the door to remain shut. Kaguya stared at the door before trying again, feeling panic start to bubble up when the door wouldn’t open.

It had moved so smoothly the first time, so it couldn’t be stuck. Not unless something was holding it shut.

Kaguya gritted her teeth and tugged on the door again before pressing her ear against it. “Suzaku?”

Her cousin didn’t answer, but Kaguya could hear the low mutter of voices on the other side. She thought she recognized Suzaku’s voice, but she wasn’t sure; it sounded too different. And there was a second voice, one that Kaguya didn’t recognize. She pressed her palm against the door, trying to catch a word of what they were saying, but it was too quiet.

She cursed under her breath, slapping her palm against the door before she backed up. Kaguya turned on her heel, looking down at the papers that were scattered on the floor. She knelt down to snatch the blueprint up, spreading it out to stare at the second floor.

There was no indication of the room on the blueprints Kaguya cursing again. She remembered reading somewhere that the Britannian nobles in Japan had made safe rooms in their houses, just in case the Japanese rebelled. She and Suzaku had to have found one, but it wasn’t on the blueprints, which meant that there was no telling if there was another entrance.

Kaguya tossed the blueprint on the ground, spinning around to stare at the door. She doubted that she would be allowed to break the door down, but there was easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Besides, they could always put in a new door. Suzaku was more important.

She took a deep breath before running at the door. She grunted when she hit it with her shoulder, ignoring the flash of pain. Her full attention was on the door, which didn’t even move. Kaguya gritted her teeth, grabbing onto the doorknob before throwing her shoulder against the door again.

It seemed to wobble a bit, Kaguya taking a deep breath before throwing herself against the door again. “Suzaku!”

She thought she heard the voices on the other side of the door pause, but the unfamiliar one was the first to resume the conversation.

Kaguya lifted her other hand to pound on the door, her fingers still curled tightly around the protection charm. “Suzaku, open the door!”

There was no answer from the other side of the door, the voices going on like she had never said anything. Kaguya growled and pounded on the door again, about to shout for her cousin when she felt the presence grow stronger.

She sucked in a quick breath, leaning heavily against the door as she felt the oppressive atmosphere grow again. Kaguya shivered as cold seeped into her bones. She clung to the doorknob, gritting her teeth.

The ghost was obviously angry. They didn’t have the trap set up, and Kaguya was sure that it wouldn’t work, not with the second room. They would have to expand the pattern, which she couldn’t be able to do unless she could open the door.

She pushed herself to her feet, bracing her shoulder against the door. There had to be a way to open it.  Her gaze skittered over to the four poster bed. There had to be something on the bed that she could use to start breaking the door down.

Kaguya shifted her hold on the door, getting ready to push away when the floorboards creaked behind her. She spun around, expecting the see the ghost of the Demon Emperor. Instead, she found herself looking at Lucille.

The caretaker took in the room, obviously not able to feel the presence of the ghost on the other side of the door. The woman just rested her hands on her hips.

Kaguya licked her lips, ready to explain what was going on when Lucille walked over to the door she was leaning against, resting her fingers against it.

Lucille remained still for a moment before reaching down to pry Kaguya’s fingers from the door. She wanted to protest, but the cold had gotten too deep for her to do anything. Lucille was gentle about it, keeping a hold of Kaguya’s hand before pushing her away from the door. Kaguya went without a fight, closing both hands around the protection charm as Lucille twisted the knob.

The knob turned easily under her hand, Kaguya gaping in surprise as the door swung open.

Lucille didn’t seem to notice her surprise, she just pushed the door open and stepped through. She kept one hand on the knob as she peered into the room. Kaguya thought she saw the woman grimace, but the expression was gone before she had time to ask about it.

The caretaker stepped into the room, waving her free hand in front of her face. She looked back over at Kaguya, turning her body slightly to give Kaguya room to come up beside her.

Kaguya rushed over to the door, bracing herself against the frame and looking in.

The room on the other side was smaller than she expected, just a bed and a dresser. The original linens and rug were still in the room, everything covered in a thick layer of dust. Suzaku was standing in the center of the room, looking slightly bewildered. Kaguya saw him reach for his pocket only to jerk his hand away. “What’s going on?”

“You didn’t listen to what I told you.” Lucille gave him a long look before stepping out of the way. “I warned you about this place.”

Suzaku looked sheepish and stepped out of the room, pushing past Kaguya.

She tried to grab a hold of her cousin, sighing when Suzaku just pushed past her. Kaguya stepped away from the door, leaving Lucille to stare into the room and shake her head. She was more interested in what had happened to her cousin.

Suzaku was walking around the main room like nothing had happened, looking at the marks that they had already put up. He shook his head and carefully peeled one from the wall, already starting to adjust the pattern.

Kaguya stepped up beside Suzaku, reaching for him only to pull her hand back. “What happened?”

Suzaku shrugged. “The door got stuck.”

There was something about his answer that she didn’t like. She leaned close, wanting to interrogate him on what had been going on in the room, what the voices had been saying, but there was something that stopped her. It was in the way that Suzaku glanced back at her, because something wasn’t quite right.

She swallowed and looked back at Lucille. Suzaku would have to wait until later, especially since there was a chance that whatever had caught him would leave once they set up their traps. Besides, she didn’t want to air out any family business in front of Lucille. They had to be professional, at least for the moment.

Kaguya cleared her throat, walking back over to the caretaker. “This wasn’t on the map.”

“It wouldn’t be. I don’t think that anyone has known about this room for years, which is why it wasn’t cleaned.”

“I thought your family knew everything about the villa.”

“We try to.” Lucille pushed her hair back over her shoulders. “But it’s a big house, and there used to be more to do. Empress Nunnally and Emperor Lance entertained more than King Richard or Queen Euphemia has. My job has mostly centered on making sure that nothing was stolen or fallen apart. Or to keep stupid teenagers from coming in here and adding to the list of people killed in this place.”

Lucille played with the door handle before shrugging. “I’ll come back to make sure this door won’t stick.”

She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door to the secret room open behind her.

Kaguya was tempted to edge over to the door and close it. The sense of cold was still emanating from it, and Kaguya wasn’t sure if it was because of the air conditioning in the house or if it was because of the ghost. She would get her answer as soon as they finished their pattern.

She turned to look at her cousin, watching as Suzaku carefully reconfigured the pieces of paper in the room. Her cousin was working his way to the other room, Kaguya feeling a shiver run down her spine.

She rushed forward, snatching up the papers that she had dropped. Kaguya slipped between Suzaku and the next room, giving him a dismissive wave. “Focus on this room. I want to be out of here as soon as possible.”

Kaguya was sure that she didn’t imagine the look of longing that Suzaku gave the secret room, but he shrugged and went back to work. Kaguya sighed and leaned against the doorway. She took a few deep breaths before stepping into the room, trying to ignore the way that it seemed to close in around her. She shook her head and started to place the papers, trying to focus on the task.

There was something about the room that filled her with fear, but not for herself. It was important that Suzaku never went into the secret room again. If he did, she had the feeling that he would never come out.

* * *

Julius drummed his fingers against his leg as Jeremiah drove up towards the Aries Villa. He did his best not to look up at the building, focusing on his knees instead. He had bowed to his sister’s wishes and come back to the villa once before to help Suzaku and Kaguya settle in, and that should have been the end of it. Julius was more than willing to let the two remain in the mansion while he and Nunnally stayed far away. They would allow the two exorcists to do their job while they focused on their own, it was the best of both worlds.

Except that he had spent most of the day holed up in the royal archives staring at the pages of a book without even absorbing anything.

He had thought that getting away from their family home and the lingering presence of their mother – who Julius knew for a fact _was not_ a ghost – would allow him to actually focus on the work that he had put by for years. It hadn’t been a relief to see Marianne die, but it had been one to know that her suffering was over and because some part of him had been longing to go back to a life where he wasn’t always looking for a sign that something else was going to go wrong. Moving away and going back to his work was supposed to mark the end of that time of his life and a return to something normal, that his time of mourning was over. Instead, he had found himself another ghost he didn’t want – a real one this time – and a series of thoughts that he didn’t want to deal with.

Julius rubbed a hand over his face, letting his next breath out as a sigh. Suzaku and Kaguya were professionals and they had practically told the rest of them to stay out of their way. Julius wasn’t insulted in the least, particularly because the ghost had proven to be dangerous before. He was more than willing to let Suzaku and Kaguya rush into danger while he made sure that his sister and cousin were safe. Knowing all of that hadn’t prevented him from spending more time looking into the Demon Emperor than into the upcoming elections He hadn’t found anything new, just the usual list of sightings and speculations that ran rampant.

Julius wasn’t surprised that the ghost was still around, the whole world seemed to be equally horrified and fascinated by the man. But it was nothing new, no lead that could take him right to the source he needed. Julius was used to the frustration after five years of chasing down political news, but he was used to working with people that were still alive. He doubted that anyone wanted to call up the ghost of the Demon Emperor in a séance and ask him why he had decided to start trying to kill people again.

He shook his head at his own stupidity, the motion drawing his gaze back up to the villa. Julius swallowed and dropped it again, his attention sliding to the small silk packet on the seat beside him.

The charm was his cover, the whole reason he was coming back to the villa. If he had been forbidden with Euphemia and Nunnally from returning, there was no need to keep it. Suzaku would definitely need it more than him, especially if the man and his cousin were foolish enough to be staying in the villa instead of somewhere safe, like any sane person would. Then again, any other sane person wouldn’t make their living chasing ghosts.

Julius tensed as the car stopped, curling his fingers into the fabric of his pants before shaking his head. He had nothing to worry about. He had learned his lesson from the first time he had gone to the villa. No matter what pressing reason or feeling he had about the place he wasn’t going to walk back inside.

He glanced back at the charm before rolling his eyes and scooping it up. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could get back and focus on his work. The deadline was looming in the distance, far enough that he hadn’t started to feel the pinch, but he would soon enough. With the anniversary of the Demon Emperor’s death fast approaching, Julius was sure that there would be other magazines and papers scrambling for anything new to print about the infamous man. He had already written articles in the two years before, one about the tactics of Charles and Lelouch as well as one about Zero.

Julius paused, his hand frozen in the act of reaching for the handle. There was something in that, something just out of reach that he couldn’t remember. He squeezed his eyes shut, closing his fingers tightly around the charm.

He could remember a dark uniform and a cape, but he couldn’t place anything else. Julius shook his head, opening his eyes again. He had seen Zero’s uniform plenty of times in the museums around Pendragon and in New London, he was probably mixing up which uniform he had seen where. That didn’t stop him from running his thumb over the embroidered birds as he stepped out of the car.

Nothing jumped out at him as he stood on the driveway.

Julius sighed and leaned back against the car, ignoring the concerned look that Jeremiah gave him. He was used to fielding those looks, and it didn’t matter because his response would be the same. He wanted to avoid the Aries Villa and everything that came with it, but he wasn’t going to let some dead emperor chase him away. If he was leaving the Aries Villa, he was going to do it under his own power.

Julius pushed away from the car, striding up towards the porch. He glanced at the windows, hoping to see some sort of movement, he didn’t care if it was human or otherwise, as long as he knew what was coming. The house remained eerily still, Julius dropping his gaze back to the ground as he walked up the steps to the porch. Still wasn’t necessarily a good thing, lots of things happened in the stillness. It was the state a predator went into just before the strike.

He yanked his hand back from where it had been drifting towards the door. Julius found himself staring at the door, ready for something to jump out at him. He found himself curling his fingers around the charm, Julius taking a few deep breaths before reaching forward again.

“Julius?”

He jumped at the sound of his name, taking a quick step back so the railing of the porch was pressed against his back. He flailed for balance for a moment before he caught himself, wincing when the silk bag fell out of his hand. Julius glanced over towards the corner of the mansion, sighing when he saw Suzaku jogging towards the porch.

Julius bent over to scoop up the charm, standing up just as Suzaku came to stand by the porch. He was thrown off by the friendly smile that Suzaku gave him, the man leaning against the porch railing. He hadn’t thought he’d made that much of an impression yesterday, he had been too busy being on the lookout for anything that would tell him if the ghost was coming. Apparently he had, because Suzaku was standing there smiling at him, and Suzaku had given him the charm.

He closed his fingers around the charm, surprised that Suzaku hadn’t noticed the motion. The man just glanced at the house before jerking his head to the side and stepping away. “I thought you would be more than ready to stay away from this place after last night.”

Julius nodded at the reminder of the warning that Kaguya had given them. “I am. I just…” He sucked in a quick breath as he came around to the stairs. “If we aren’t going to be in the villa, then I don’t see why I need this. You’ll be the one most in danger.”

He opened his hand to show Suzaku the charm, glancing up in time to catch the look of surprise on Suzaku’s face. Julius wasn’t sure if he imagined the blush that crossed Suzaku’s face or not, but Suzaku didn’t hesitate to take the silk pouch back.

“Thanks.”

Julius nodded and stepped down onto the driveway. He threw a look back over his shoulder at the house, trying to ignore the shiver that ran down his spine. Looking back at Suzaku was a far better option. He cleared his throat, grasping at different ways to start a conversation, or end one so he could slip away. “Why did you give me that?”

Suzaku looked just as surprised by the question. He played with the charm for a moment before slipping it back in his pocket with a shrug. “You seemed like you needed it more than me.”

“More than you?”

The question got another shrug. “I’m used to the dangers of the job, and I have more than just a charm to fall back on. You don’t.”

Julius wanted to laugh at the statement, no matter how true it was. He still remembered the look in the ghost’s eyes and he couldn’t believe that some muttered words or little bag would be enough to ward the ghost away. That still hadn’t stopped him from feeling better with the little bag in his possession. Even now he felt exposed without it, and that was when he was outside the building.

He shot a confused look at Suzaku, watching the man carefully. “What are you doing out here? I thought you and your cousin were working in the house.”

“Kaguya is still working on some of the rooms, but she sent me outside once we found a secret room.” Julius wasn’t sure if he imagined the wince that Suzaku gave or not. “She wants me to check to see if there are any more secrets waiting for us. We don’t want the ghost to have new places to hide.”

“Any luck?”

Suzaku shook his head. “I can’t tell from the outside, but I’m sure pacing out the house will give us better result.”

Suzaku rubbed the back of his neck, looking over his shoulder at the house. He sighed, the sound long and loud. Suzaku tipped his head up to look up at the sky, not seeming to find what he was looking for up there either. “Asking you about the house won’t get us much, will it?”

Julius shook his head. “Ask the caretaker, she knows all about this place.”

“So she says. But you know Zero.”

Julius huffed. “I know Zero because it’s impossible not to with what I do.”

“And what do you do?”

Julius thought he saw the flicker of a smile on Suzaku’s face, like he was trying to hide it. He rolled his eyes, tempted to just walk back to the car, but that would mean a waste of ten minutes and more staring at his notes as he waited for something to connect. It was better to distract himself for a while, and both Nunnally and Euphemia were busy with their own business. Julius was sure that he should feel a bit guilty for distracting Suzaku from his work, he didn’t care.

He stepped to the side, avoiding the car. Suzaku kept pace with him, brushing up against him for a moment as they edged between the car and the bushes on the side of the driveway. Julius was surprised by the contact, but it was gone as soon as it came, Suzaku walking ahead of him a few steps before turning around and looking back at him.

There was an invitation there, like Suzaku expected him to step back into the car and drive off. Julius flexed his fingers before glancing over at Jeremiah. The man had leaned his chair back and looked like he had fallen asleep. There was no point in waking Jeremiah up now, and Suzaku had asked him a question.

Julius stepped up beside Suzaku, looking down the tree lined drive that led up to the Aries Villa. He kept the silence going for a while longer, staring at the statues that had fallen down and been grown over. After another beat, he sighed and lifted one shoulder in a partial shrug. “I write for political magazines, mostly freelance.”

The answer had Suzaku raising his eyebrows, Julius almost surprised by the reaction. He didn’t expect Suzaku to know his articles, they tended to focus on Britannia. Anything that he had done before was probably lost in the detritus of theories and summaries that had followed. It had been five long years since he had done anything massive, just little things here and there. It had been harder before.

He looked away from the toppled statue of a woman, not wanting to look at it too long. It was only because he glanced over that he noticed that Suzaku had moved away.

The man had walked a few more steps away from the car and the house, Julius not blaming him for the move. He just couldn’t understand how Suzaku could stand with his back to the building, especially knowing what was in there. Julius shivered and followed him, not willing to turn completely away from the villa. He kept his head tipped in its direction, but most of his attention was on Suzaku.

Suzaku fiddled with the charm that he had put back in his pocket, seeming to be thinking over something. It was apparent in the way that he kept glancing back over at Julius.

He allowed it for a moment longer before he sighed. “Yes, that’s what I was doing before my mother got sick.” Suzaku winced, Julius smirking in amusement. “You read up on me.”

“You and Nunnally. It’s just procedure. We’d never share that information.”

“It’s not a problem, it’s not like it was ever a secret.” Julius grinned. “Although that’s kind of one sided, you knowing everything about me and I know nothing about you.”

“Do you want to?”

It wouldn’t matter in the long run, Suzaku was just a stray acquaintance that had wandered into his life and would be gone just as quickly. That didn’t mean he wasn’t curious. After all, the man had ruined his attempt at work since all Julius could think about was the old manor and what could really be going on inside it.

That and Suzaku probably had the greenest eyes that Julius had ever seen.

Julius cleared his throat and looked away. He scrambled for a safe topic, setting on the painfully obvious. “How does one even get into the business of hunting ghosts?”

“Kaguya and I were born into it.” Suzaku walked over to the nearest tree and leaned against it. Julius turned to face him, mimicking his position. Suzaku didn’t seem to notice, he had his head tipped back to stare up into the tree. “The Sumeragis have been doing this for centuries, I don’t think they know exactly who started it. Mists of time and all that.”

Suzaku made a dismissive gesture with his hand, pausing about halfway through the motion. “I’m an honorary Sumeragi, my mother married into the Kururugi family from there. I used to follow her around the shrine and carrying the things she needed. I inherited the job after she…” Suzaku trailed off, dropping his gaze back to the ground. “It was cancer.”

“My mother too.” Julius offered Suzaku a shaky smile, not sure if it helped any.

Suzaku just returned it, nodding slowly. “That’s how someone gets into the business of hunting ghosts. The way we do it is just tradition, but it works well.”

“Against everything?”

“So far.” There was another flicker, Julius sure that he caught the indecision on Suzaku’s face.

Julius took a step forward, hesitating just long enough to look back at the house. When he was sure that there was nothing there, he spoke up, forcing to keep his voice above a whisper. “Have you seen it?”

Suzaku looked confused for a moment, but he just shook his head. “No, but he’s been around. I’m sure he’s watching.”

Julius shivered, rubbing his arms against the sudden chill he felt. He glanced back at the building, jumping when Suzaku rested a hand on his arm. Julius glanced down at it before stepping forward under the slight pressure, tensing when he realized that he was facing away from the house. He shook his head, relieved when Suzaku stepped slightly to the side, turning the two of them so Julius could see the house out of the corner of his eye.

He looked back up at Suzaku, surprised at the gentle smile that was on the man’s face. “He’s not going to come out here.”

“How do you know?”

“A feeling.”

Julius scoffed at the idea, not surprised that Suzaku just looked amused. The man leaned back against the tree, Julius trying to figure out how to pick apart what he had said. To have all that planning and efficiency come down to a feeling was something beyond him. There had to be something more, especially when dealing with something that could kill them all.

He glanced back at the house, looking over the windows before looking back at Suzaku. “That’s not reassuring.”

“What would be?”

“A plan.”

Suzaku sighed, the man slumping against the tree. “We went through that last night.”

“But that was before what you figured out now.” Julius paused, watching Suzaku carefully. There was something in the way he was shifting in place. He narrowed his eyes. “Something’s changed.”

“Kaguya’s just worried.”

“She has a good reason to be.” He didn’t remember much of the ghost other than red eyes, but he remembered the fear that he had felt. “He’s killed people.”

Julius expected Suzaku to shrug it off, just like he had everything else. Instead, Suzaku looked serious, his jaw clenching for a moment. “That won’t happen, not to you or anyone else.”

There was a certain amount of bluster in the statement, but Julius found that he couldn’t laugh it off. Suzaku looked serious, like he fully intended to take down the Demon Emperor, even though it had taken the entire world to do it before. And that was back when the man had been just a human.

Julius shook his head, wanting to trying and talk Suzaku out of his bravado, but it hadn’t worked on the staircase before. Then again, he hadn’t tried too hard the day before. Julius was sure that it wouldn’t make a difference, Suzaku seemed to be stubborn and immovable on the subject of the ghost. At least Suzaku had the experience that would keep him safe, unlike the others that had come into the mansion.

It was enough to make him wonder if Lionel Strickland, Alexander Zambrano or Daniel Cotterill would have gotten out if they had done something differently. If they hadn’t, then he and Nunnally must have been lucky.

He shivered, feeling a hand rest on his shoulder. Julius tried his best not to flinch away, reaching up to rub at his neck. There were times that he could still feel the ghost’s hands closing around his neck. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling his shoulders shake with the motion.

“We’ll take care of the ghost, I promise.”

Julius glanced over at Suzaku, resisting the urge to scoff at the promise. Suzaku meant it, he just couldn’t see how it would be done, at least not with papers and words. And not against a man who had played with the world like it was nothing more than a game. It was all too easy to imagine two more bodies being brought out of the Aries Villa, just like the others.

His mind caught on the idea, Julius not sure why he couldn’t push the thought away. Three of the names kept spinning around in his head, Julius automatically running through where he had seen them. It felt like he was close to something, something that he already knew.

He must have made some face because Suzaku squeezed his shoulder. Julius found himself leaning into the touch, lifting his gaze to look at Suzaku.

He didn’t want to admit that he didn’t trust Suzaku, because that wasn’t the case. He just had the feeling that Suzaku was missing something. It was in the ghost, or in the lack of ghosts. There had been four people killed, but there had only ever been one ghost. After one hundred years, there had only been four people killed.

Julius stepped out of Suzaku’s grasp, glancing back at the car. If he wanted the answer to his question, he would have to go back to the royal archives; it was the only place after the Aries Villa that would have the information that he needed, and he wasn’t going back inside the Aries Villa unless there was no other choice.

Julius raked a hand through his hair as he looked back at Suzaku. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

Suzaku shot him a confused look. “Continuing observation. Kaguya mentioned a trip to the Avalon Cemetery to check on Lelouch’s grave.”

Julius nodded and stepped back towards the car. “Meet me at the royal archives tomorrow. I might have something for you then.”

He heard Suzaku make a high pitched noise of surprise, but he ignored it. He didn’t think that Suzaku would ignore the chance to get more information about the ghost that he and his cousin were hunting. Besides, he couldn’t linger much longer in case the thoughts slipped away from him, something that he was afraid would happen if he stayed at the villa. Between looking for the ghost in the windows and Suzaku, Julius was sure that the hunch that he was starting to have would disappear entirely.

He gave Suzaku a quick wave before slipping into the car, not surprised when Jeremiah sat up in his seat. Julius secured his seatbelt around him, not bothering to look forward. “Back to the archives.”

“Finally getting back to work?”

“Maybe.” Julius drummed his fingers against the belt, finally giving into the urge to turn around.

He had to slide the seatbelt down over his shoulder to really look out the rear window, his gaze sliding over to where Suzaku was standing on the driveway, watching him as the car drove away.

* * *

C.C. padded through the Aries Villa, her head tipped to the side as she listened intently. Everyone was asleep and she intended to keep it that way. She didn’t want to wake anyone, not when it would lead to awkward explanations that she didn’t have time for. It would be easier if no one knew she was there. It had always worked before.

She rubbed absently at the scar on her chest, curling her fingers into her shirt when she realized what she was doing.

No one cared about C’s World any longer; that had all died with Charles and Marianne. Lelouch had made sure that it had stayed dead with them too. All computer files were corrupted or deleted and all paper records were burned. She was free to go about the world again like she had never existed, which suited her just fine.

She paused at the end of the hallway, staring out into the entrance hall. It was strange to see the place without the piles of furniture and the unwanted detritus of the royal family. With everything gone, it looked like she was stepping back into the days when Lelouch had used the house as his base of operations in Japan. She found herself wanting to wander along old paths, along the back hallway between the two wings or up onto the second floor. Lelouch would still be up, working through his piles of paperwork. Suzaku would be with him too, hovering over his shoulder while he tried to convince Lelouch to go to bed. It would be the only time that Suzaku would be out too, otherwise it was too dangerous. After all, the knight was supposed to be dead.

C.C. shook her head to clear it, annoyed with herself. That had been years ago, and nothing could bring it back. She had to be getting old if she was allowing herself to gather wool, especially where she was.

The house felt different, and it wasn’t just because of the missing furniture. There was a heaviness to the place that hadn’t been there, not since the end of Emperor Lance’s reign. Then there was the attack on Julius, and the two others in the house. For the first time in nearly thirty years, the house was lively again. But C.C. was sure that it was the wrong kind of lively, which meant that it was her job to check out what was going on. She had learned her lesson from Mao all those years ago, and she was not just going to let something pass because she wanted to get away from it, especially when she was already partially invested.

Besides, if the ghost was being spotted again it meant that one hundred years of visits to Lelouch’s grave and everything else she had done to keep him quiet had been for nothing.

C.C. crossed the empty expanse of the entrance hall, pausing only long enough to throw a glance to where Lelouch’s room had been. She couldn’t see any movement on the upper floor, C.C. not sure if that was a good sign or not. Either way, it meant that she was still in the clear.

She crossed to the other hall, throwing an annoyed look at the suits of armor that were still there. There were fewer now that the place had been cleaned out, but still far too many for her taste. She had to resist the urge to shove a few of them over, just to see the fine but useless suits splayed out on the ground. All of them were more decorative than anything else, something that made her laugh. It was just like the emperors of Britannia to display ornate armor instead of practical ones, it was just like the image they wanted to project.

C.C. reached out to finger the pommel of a sword, wincing when it rattled in place. She froze, listening for sounds from anywhere else in the house before shaking her head. She gave the sword one last glance before moving on. There were more important things to do than wax poetical about the old glory of the Britannian Empire.

Since the arrival of the two guests to the Aries Villa she had been feeling nervous, and nervous meant that she could make a mistake. It was better to check on everything, but to do that she needed the help of a few books that she knew that the villa had. The royal archives might have the diaries of Empress Nunnally, but C.C. knew for a fact that they were abridged. There had been whole parts that had been left out when it had been published for the public and the originals put back in the Aries Villa for storage. C.C. knew that because she had been the one to put them in the library there.

She walked down the hallway, not pausing to look at any of the other changes. She didn’t suffer from nostalgia, but there was something about the slow change of a place that unnerved her. Quick changes didn’t matter, but the slow ones just reminded her of the fact that she _couldn’t_ change. Then again, it was partially her fault. After ten hundred years of not caring, she had managed to go soft and it had been at her own expense, not that she regretted it. The only thing she wished was that she had managed to find something to occupy the years in between, other than her visits to Lelouch’s grave.

C.C. pushed the door to the library open, carefully shutting it behind her. She wanted to get every bit of warning that she could if one of the guests decided to start roaming around. She didn’t feel like explaining herself, especially not to them.

She pressed her ear against the door, listening for a moment. C.C. doubted that she would be able to hear anything through the thick door, but she wanted to be sure. She trailed her fingers over the crests carved in the door before shaking her head. There was nothing out in the hallway, and there was nothing in the library. She was safe for the time being, for however long that would be. C.C. glanced over at one of the large windows, tempted to try it to see if it was open. It wasn’t the best escape route, but it was better than trying to dodge around someone.

C.C. huffed and turned away from the window. She would get caught if she kept delaying. C.C. rolled her shoulders and walked over to the bookshelves. Some of the books had been rearranged over the years, but the placement of the diaries couldn’t have changed much.

She walked down the shelves, dragging her hand along the wood of the shelf. Most of the books in the library were first editions, moved to make space in the personal libraries of the monarchs. C.C. was sure that all of Emperor Lance’s books of legends of old Britannia and the Arthurian legends were tucked away here, probably on the higher levels. She couldn’t imagine Richard or Euphemia wanting to read about the great glories of empire. She tipped her head back, trying to see if she could catch a glimpse of one of the titles, but they were too far up.

Empress Nunnally’s diaries would be just along the wall where she was, easy enough to get. The problem would be finding what she was looking for. Nunnally had kept diaries from about when her brother had died until the last week of her life. It was years of material to cover for something that might not even be mentioned. Still, she had to try.

She was still connected to Lelouch through C’s World, at least in theory. It had always been like that with everyone she had made a contract with, at least until they let their consciousness dissolve C’s World. Except that she had lost contact with Lelouch, and she had never expected him to just give up so easily. She had been counting on having Lelouch as a constant for a while longer.

It would have been easier if she could have gone into C’s World, but the open gates were few and far between. The one in Pendragon and the one on Kamine Island had been destroyed. The others were buried under cities or in places that would take too much of an effort to visit. Until things got dire, she could get by with looking at what was around Pendragon and reaching for Lelouch when she could feel him.

C.C. tipped her head, scanning the bookshelf. If she remembered correctly, the empress’ diaries should have been on the next shelf.

Her gaze slid over, C.C. coming to a stop when she saw the small box resting on the shelf. She reached in to pull it out, shaking her head when she saw the small key that was resting inside it. For a moment, she was tempted to take the lid off and touch the key inside, but she didn’t want to tempt fate. She couldn’t feel Lelouch in the house at the moment, but she was sure that messing with something of Suzaku’s would bring Lelouch faster than anything. The fact that he had kept a copy of the Lancelot’s key was evidence enough of that.

She set the box back on the shelf, sucking in a quick breath when she knocked against a book. The book wobbled before tipping forward, C.C. lunging forward to grab it. It just slipped through her fingers, tumbling to the floor. In quick succession, there was a click from the bookcase as it swung open.

C.C. winced at the noise, freezing in place as she listened for the sounds of other people coming. It didn’t matter that no one could have possibly heard the sound, it was better safe than sorry.

When nothing happened, she sighed and bent over to pick up the book, the corner of her mouth quirking up when she saw the title. Dante’s _Divine Comedy: Purgatory_. She had forgot that she had switched the books the last time she had come into the library. She was sure that Lelouch would have appreciated the switch. It was far better than the biography of Charles zi Britannia that had been there before.

She reached out to slide the book back into place, freezing when the motion made her cross in front of the open passageway.

It wasn’t a surprise that the Aries Villa had secret rooms and passages. The noble that had built the house had been paranoid about the subjugated people and Emperor Lance had probably added his own bits to the house in his own fear and paranoia. The thing that surprised her the most was the feeling that came from the passage.

It had been a while since she had felt Lelouch, let alone Lelouch when he was in C’s World. But she could feel it now, lurking in the back of her head where Marianne had used to sit.

C.C. gripped the book in her hands, waiting for Lelouch to reach out to her. When he didn’t she huffed and glared at the passage.

Nunnally’s diaries were well within reach, but so was Lelouch. Going right to the source would be easier, especially if he was reaching out to her, involuntarily or not. It would give her a chance to talk to him, something that she had been meaning to do for years.

She placed the book back on the shelf, setting it by the box instead of back in place. She didn’t want the passage shutting on her while she was down there, guests in the manor or not. As far as she remembered, there was no way out through the other side, not unless it had been changed the last time she had been inside.

C.C. nudged the book into place before sighing and shaking her head. There was no reason for her to keep standing around the library, especially since she might lose hold of Lelouch. She rolled her shoulders before stepping into the passage, catching herself on the wall.

The passageway was tight and dark, C.C. keeping one hand on the wall to guide her as she walked down. She almost wished that she had thought to bring a flashlight. The passage wasn’t too bad, the path underneath her feet a gentle slope down with plenty of headroom. Her fingers traced along a wire that was pinned to the wall. She would lose it every once and a while, C.C. guessing that it moved up to a light, although she hadn’t found a light switch when she moved into the passage. As far as she knew, it was all the way at the bottom, which made no sense. It was an escape passage, which meant that people would have to see where they were going to escape.

She huffed and shook her head, picking up the pace as she jogged down to the end. The passage leveled out, C.C. feeling her hand lift from the wall as the passage widened out. She side stepped, wanting to stay close to the wall just in case. She winced when her fingers barked against the cement. C.C. shook out her hand, turning her head to glare at the wall.

Carefully, she rested her hand against the wall, grinning when she felt something metal sticking out of it. She pressed against it, hearing a click.

There was a low hum, C.C. raising a hand to cover her eyes when the light flickered on. The light was dim, but it was still a shock after being in the dark passage.

She kept back in the passage until the lights had completely flickered on, raising her eyebrow at the large space that had been made. She hadn’t known about this, but it looked like a bunker, just the kind of thing that Emperor Lance would have built to wait out attacks by rebels, or whatever else he believed was coming after him.

C.C. stepped out into the open space, jumping at the sight of a figure in dark clothes. She spun around, her back hitting the wall. She could hear her heart pounding frantically, C.C. waiting for the figure to move. When it remained still C.C. took a cautious step forward, shaking her head at her own foolishness.

It was nothing more than a clothes stand, placed partially in shadow.

C.C. huffed, the breath pushing her bangs away from her forehead. It was a childish thing to be scared of shadows, but concern was another matter entirely.

She walked up to the uniform on display, frowning when she recognized it in the dim light. It had been years since she had seen this version of it, and that didn’t explain what it was doing down in the passage. The last she remembered, the outfit had been stored away safely in the attic while the mansion was being cleared out. The only reason she could think of was that someone had taken it down the passage to keep it safe, but she couldn’t imagine any of the museum staff wanting to do it, nor would anyone else who had been in the mansion.

C.C. reached out to touch the uniform, resting her hand on its shoulder as she looked around the room. The touch was just reassurance, the knowledge that it wouldn’t move. Even without the mask, it looked lifelike, like it was just waiting for someone to step into the boots. The thought made her frown, C.C. stepping around the uniform to look further back into the room.

On the far wall there was a wooden table pushed back against the wall. The set up on it looked almost like a Japanese family alter, although all the pictures and incense burners had been shoved aside and were covered with dust. Only one thing took up the center of the alter, C.C. swallowing when she recognized the mask sitting in the center.

She strode over to the alter, reaching out for the mask only to pull her hands back. She didn’t know why the mask was down in the room either, it should have been with the rest of the things had been taken to the museum. Unless the same person had saved it too.

A shiver went down her spine, C.C. turning around to check if there was anyone behind her. She glanced at the stand, relieved that it hadn’t moved.

C.C. shook her head at her own nervousness, slowing the motion down when she caught something different about the floor. She glanced down, her eyes widening at what she saw.

“So that’s what you did. So that’s why-” The words caught in her throat as pain blossomed in her chest.

C.C. looked down at herself, pressing a hand to the scar. When she lifted her hand, her fingers came away bloody. C.C. swallowed and stared at the bloodstain growing on the front of her shirt.

The temperature in the room plummeted, C.C. looking back up slowly.

He was standing right in front of her, a familiar cold expression on his face. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Lelouch…”

If he recognized her, there was no indication of it on his face. He just took a step back, watching her as she collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath as she bled out.


	6. Chapter Five: What Lies Beneath

“The living come with grassy tread  
To read the gravestones on the hill;  
The graveyard draws the living still,  
But never anymore the dead.”  
- _In a Disused Graveyard_ , Robert Frost

* * *

Julius wrapped his hands around the mug of tea, staring down at the mess of papers and books. He was sure that there were two used pens lost in the mix, along with the article that was supposed to be working on. Julius was sure that he would be forgiven, there would be plenty of articles coming out on the political ideas of Senator Maldini and Sanders versus Donald Thorpe and Theodore Cruz; one more wouldn’t make a difference. Besides, everyone knew who would be elected as Prime Minister, especially after everything he had done to smooth over the growing rift between the different ideologies. That the magazines and websites kept running the same articles wasn’t his problem. If things went well, he would have a whole new article to sell, although Julius couldn’t begin to imagine where.

He smiled to himself, ducking his head to hide a yawn. He shook his head, blinking rapidly to try and keep himself from slumping forward. He didn’t want to risk spilling tea on everything he had found, because he wasn’t sure he would be able to dig it all up again. It had taken him all night as it was.

Julius took another gulp of tea, wincing at the burn on his tongue. At the moment it was the only thing keeping him awake, which would have to do until Suzaku got to the archives, something that would be happening soon. He glanced over at his cell phone, smiling at the picture of him and his sister that was on the front screen.

Nunnally had texted him a few minutes before telling him that Kaguya and Suzaku had swung by and that she was going out for a bit. He had raised his eyebrow at the last part of her text, but had let it go without a comment. Nunnally was old enough to make her own decisions, as much as he wanted to dote on her and keep her safe. If he tried to enforce that, Julius was sure that she would fight against them. They had gotten used to doing their own things while they had been on opposite sides of the country, Nunnally especially. She was an aide to one of the most well-known man in the country, not the little girl that he used to chase around Hollis House’s gardens. It was almost enough to make him miss those days.

He sighed and looked back down at his papers, feeling the corner of his mouth twitch up into a smile. As long as she was happy, he had no argument about what she was doing. Julius was sure that the reverse was true for her, and Julius couldn’t remember the last time he had been happier save for when Marianne had been alive.

Julius twisted to place his cup of tea on an unoccupied chair. The table had too much clutter for him to risk setting his tea down. He had meant to clear the table off, but he kept running into things that he needed and things that he knew Suzaku needed to see. It was too complicated of a story for him to tell on his own, especially since it sounded so fantastical. Suzaku would be the end judge of what he had found. Julius just hoped that it would be something useful, or he had spent the entire night researching and plotting for nothing.

He looked up as the door to the archive room opened, Julius catching a glimpse of the outer desk librarian before she stepped aside. He relaxed back against his chair when he saw Suzaku. The man had his head tipped to the side, apparently in some kind of conversation with the librarian.

Suzaku didn’t linger long by the door, giving the librarian a polite nod before stepping into the room. The door slid shut behind him, Suzaku twisting slightly to watch it move. When he turned back around to face Julius, he had one eyebrow raised. “You’ve been busy.”

Julius shrugged and leaned back in his chair, gesturing to the empty one on his other side. “I told you I would have something for you and I don’t miss deadlines.”

Suzaku gave the piles of books and papers a long glance before shaking his head. “What about your job?”

He decided to ignore the question, taking up his cup of tea again. He tipped his head back to the station situated in the back of the room. “Help yourself.”

Suzaku shook his head. “I’m more interested in what you have here.”

Julius sighed, taking another sip of tea. He used the moment to study Suzaku over the top of his mug.

The man was staring at the books and papers, a wrinkle in the center of his forehead. Suzaku leaned close to the books, Julius seeing him mouth a few words. Julius watched as Suzaku’s licked his lips, shaking his head when he realized that he was staring at Suzaku’s mouth. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Clearly he had been up too long.

Julius rubbed his forehead, trying to wake up again. He could sleep once he was done; he would allow his mind to do what it wanted then. Until that moment, he had work to do.

He looked up again, watching as Suzaku leaned over one of his scrawled pages of notes. The man stared at it for a while before his attention was jerked to another paper. Suzaku reached out, Julius seeing the photograph of Suzaku and Kaguya on the side of the article. Julius set his tea down on the unoccupied chair before he stood up. He made his way over to Suzaku, side, his gaze lingering at the photo before he focused his gaze on Suzaku’s shoulder. “What better way to get information than to go straight to the professionals?”

Julius thought he caught a grin on Suzaku’s before he took the article from the man’s hand. He set it back down among the papers scattered over the table. He looked over the notes and books, trying to find his starting point again. It was all a tangled mess on the table, but crystal clear in his head. It was the explaining that was going to be the problem.

He cleared his throat and started to circle the table as he tried to look for what he wanted to start with. He kept up the conversation as he looked. “I needed to know the typical behavior of ghosts.”

“I wouldn’t call it typical.”

“I know.” Julius leaned over one of the books, flipping through the pages before shaking his head. “But I needed something other than guesses.”

“It looks like you have all the answers here.”

“I might have a few, but not all of them.” Julius smiled up at Suzaku, resting his hand on one of the books. “That all depends on you. After all, you know ghosts better than I do.”

Suzaku stared at him for a moment before shifting to stand behind the other free chair. For a moment, it looked like Suzaku was going to sit down, but the man remained standing. He leaned against the back of the chair, Julius taking the motion as a signal to go ahead.

He swallowed and looked back down at the book, staring at the elaborate family tree in it. “I was thinking about the people who died in the villa, and how Nunnally and I were lucky to get out. I thought it was luck until I started wondering why us. Out of everyone who has been in and out of the manor, why us? So I looked into arrest records and the internet to see if there were any other deaths. Imagine my surprise when it was only those four.”

“I could have told you that.” Suzaku looked up from where he was flipping through pages of printed out articles. “Apparently the Clarissant family has been keeping track of the ghost since they were hired by the empress.”

Julius looked up in shock, staring at Suzaku. There was a chance that he and his cousin had already worked out what it had taken him all night to realize. The two of them probably had plenty more experience than he did and could see patterns like this in a glance. Then again, Suzaku had still come. He was still listening and he was still interested.

The record was something that he had never considered, and it could throw everything that he worked for off. He curled his fingers around the edge of the table. “How many more deaths?”

“None. Just the four.” Julius gaped at Suzaku, the man just shrugging. “The ghost was spotted a few times just roaming the hallways, establishing his favorite rooms. He didn’t start acting aggressive until later.” Suzaku frowned for a moment before shaking his head. “The record didn’t give us any dates.”

Julius nodding, trying to hide the feeling of elation that flooded through him. A record of the ghost’s appearances was good, and they might establish a pattern, but it wasn’t the right pattern.

He shoved more of the books towards the end of the table, grabbing at a stack of notes that had been hidden underneath them. “We can get dates, all of the deaths were reported. The first one was in 2045.”

Suzaku’s brow furrowed for a moment, Julius seeing him mouth something before the realization hit him. “The Chinese Federation.”

Julius nodded, looking for the newspaper article that he had found before abandoning it as a lost cause. He knew what the chain of events was, and he was sure that Suzaku did too. After all, Japan had been closer to the Chinese Federation during one of the last death throes of the nation. Everything else was just the things he had found to fill in, things that made too much sense.

He matched Suzaku’s lean across the table, smiling at the rapt look on the man’s face. “Alexander Zambrano, son of one of the former nobles of Britannia. He was one of the men courting Aurelia, there’s plenty of pictures of the two of them attending state events. According to some of the magazines of the time, the two of them were a sure thing, at least until the Tianzi died. Her son took the throne and then everyone was jostling to make a binding treaty with the nation. No one wanted create an enemy or make a gap for another empire to rise, everyone was still afraid of another war or what Zero could do.”

Suzaku nodded, not breaking his gaze. “Emperor Zan Lihua married Princess Aurelia vi Britannia as part of an agreement of support between the two countries. But she wasn’t forced into it, they’re plenty of interviews that say that it was almost love at first sight.”

“By why would she do that when she had Alexander Zambrano courting her?” Julius gestured at the pile of books. “There was nothing to indicate that they wanted to change their plans, not even during the worst of the panic. Nothing happens until the Tianzi’s illness gets to the point where the doctors know that they can’t save her. The people start asking about doing something to shore up the stumbling government, but no one from the EU is of marriageable age and Kerena and Diana were too young. Aurelia and Zan had met before but, when it counted, there was Alexander to worry about. It’s a little convenient that he was killed by the ghost the exact time that he needed to be. I would have suspected murder, except that someone already did that investigation for me and they found nothing.”

He watched as Suzaku worked through the information. The man swayed in place for a moment before nodding slowly. “The records said that the ghost stuck to a few rooms and that’s not one of them.” He reached out to tap on one of the articles, one with a picture of where Alexander’s body had been found. “That’s one of the guest rooms in the wing we’re staying.”

“Are you sure?”

Suzaku nodded. “There are records are him _passing_ but never appearing in the room, at least aside from this. It’s breaking the pattern.”

“Or he’s creating a new one.” Julius turned to the next stack of paper, freeing it from the three books that had been stacked on it. “Alexander Zambrano was just the start. The next one was 2086, Sir Lionel Strickland.”

Julius expected the confused pause. Suzaku might have learned about the near civil war that Emperor Lance had steered Britannia towards, but the complex political twists and turns were something that Julius was sure that most people didn’t know. Most people didn’t need to know, or they didn’t want to be reminded of the seven years of near terror.

Suzaku obviously recognized the name because he frowned and reached for the papers that Julius was holding out. “The records said something about him in the Emperor’s Room. He died there.”

“He was murdered there.” Julius opened his mouth to say that the man had deserved it, but he snapped it shut. It didn’t matter if the people had deserved it or not, the important point was what the people had meant to the state of current events at the time.

He shook his head and leaned forward again, speaking as Suzaku read over the pages of notes. “He’s well known for being Emperor Lance’s greatest supporter, and for being one of the Zeros.” That got Suzaku’s attention for a moment, Julius stopping long enough to nod before pushing on. “He was publically knighted and proclaimed Zero after Lance ordered the death of the current Zero for fermenting rebellion. That wasn’t true, but it left a gap for Lance to appoint his own Zero. The Imposter Zero.”

Suzaku shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. Everything I read said that Emperor Lelouch and Emperor Lance had the same ideas.”

“They did, but Emperor Lelouch couldn’t have wanted Zero to continue, not after the second one killed him.”

Suzaku remained still for a moment, Julius watching him carefully. He could see Suzaku mouthing words, but he couldn’t make sense of them, they were too quiet.

It took Suzaku another beat of silence before he looked up, Julius surprised by the comprehension that he saw on the man’s face. “He’s still playing a political game.”

Julius was surprised by how fast that Suzaku had caught on. He had never imagined the man to be dumb, but it had taken him hours to see the pattern. He grinned and came around the table, abandoning his notes. Suzaku didn’t need the proof, not when the pattern was clear.

He leaned against the table beside Suzaku, nodding when the man set down the papers. Suzaku swallowed before looking over at Lelouch. “Who’s next?”

“Edward Fairfax.” The genealogy book was on the other side of the table, but that didn’t matter. Julius was sure he had memorized all the twists and turns in the political lives of the people connected to the Demon Emperor’s ghost. “He was a few months old at the time.”

“A few months?!”

Julius waved his hand to dismiss the question, feeling Suzaku glare at him. He tried to ignore the glare, hunching his shoulders a fraction “That one’s not important.”

“Not important! Julius-”

“It may or may not fit the pattern.” Julius took a deep breath, meeting Suzaku’s gaze. “There was no investigation, everyone just assumed that the ghost was responsible for the death. They were distracted by the death of Daniel Cotterill, the man who had been appointed regent for Edward. He died the same way as the others, a wound in the stomach with no weapon found.”

“And the child?”

“No one investigated. It’s possible that the ghost killed him, but it’s also possible that someone else decided to strike while Daniel was dead. After all, the two deaths crippled any government that Emperor Lance had tried to set up, which allowed King Richard to take the throne.”

Suzaku still looked furious, but the anger was no longer directed at him, it was focused on people long dead. Julius glanced down, watching Suzaku’s fingers flex, reaching out to grab his hand before he stopped himself. It was on the tip of his tongue to say it was a rare thing to find someone in Pendragon who wasn’t part of the scheming, but Julius was sure that it wouldn’t help.

He dropped his gaze to Suzaku’s shaking hands, focusing on them instead of the angry look on Suzaku’s face. “Cotterill was killed because he supported King Richard, at least publically. The few weeks he was alive, Cotterill seemed to be mellowing in his politics. It was enough to make the people like him, because they were tired of living in fear, but it turned many of Lance’s old followers against him. It was all an act, but the ghost wouldn’t have known that.”

Suzaku let out a long breath, Julius looking up at the shaky sound of it. Suzaku’s shoulders were still tense, but Julius was sure that he saw them relaxing a fraction.

He had thought that Suzaku would react differently, maybe with some sort of praise, but he hadn’t thought that Suzaku would take the deaths so hard. There had been no way that he could have prevented them, not when he wouldn’t have been alive for any of them. Julius curled his fingers around the edge of the table, feeling his way carefully around the words. “You have a chance to stop it now.”

“Yes.” Suzaku’s fingers uncurled slowly. The tension left his body in a rush, Suzaku swaying in place for a bit. “But why you? Why Nunnally?”

Julius was surprised by the question. He glanced down at the books and papers scattered on the table, searching for the answer. He had focused on the deaths that had already happened, because the survivors were just lucky escapes. There had been hundreds of teenagers going to the Aries Villa over the years, and only a few of them had reported sightings of the Demon Emperor. Those few just said that the ghost had frightened them and they had run, but nothing about the ghost chasing them from the house. As far as Julius knew, he had only chased Nunnally.

He reached out for one of the books, dragging it closer and paging through it. He wasn’t sure that there was an answer somewhere, but Julius didn’t think he had the right information for it. The only book that would help was the genealogy one, but he already knew the Kingsley family’s connections to the royal family, and that one had been going on since before the ghost had started to kill people. Julius shook his head. “I don’t…”

“Your sister works for Senator Maldini, doesn’t she?” Suzaku spoke the words slowly, stacking the papers and shutting the books again. “He opposes what the Demon Emperor would want.”

“But she didn’t when she was younger.”

“Then why not make it simpler.” Suzaku reached forward, grabbing a book and pulling it over to them. Julius was sure that Suzaku didn’t need to get so close to him, but he didn’t step away, not when his attention was caught by the picture that Suzaku pointed to. “I would swear that this is your sister, but it’s the empress.”

Julius stared at the picture, nodding slowly. He had always been aware of the similarity, their father had even called Nunnally empress, almost jokingly. No one had seemed surprised that she had taken after the empress. Save for Marianne who had taken after her father, all of the Kingsley woman looked like Empress Nunnally in one way or another.

He felt Suzaku’s gaze on him for a while longer, but he didn’t dare look up. It was easier to just follow Suzaku’s finger as he trailed it over to the picture opposite the empress’. “You look enough like he did that it could confuse him. Ghosts don’t follow time well. Days and months are easy, but years don’t matter, not when you’re dead.”

Julius stared at the two pictures, feeling a shiver run down his spine. The attacks on him and Nunnally hadn’t been political actions, it had been revenge. The ghost had wanted to kill Nunnally because she was the one who had fought against him at the Battle of Mount Fuji and he wouldn’t allow someone who looked so much like him to run around, especially since Julius had no other real importance. He was just a man who wrote articles about the political climate, and nothing really groundbreaking at that. He had been off the scene too long for that.

“It’s good that we’re staying out of the house then.” He managed to laugh, sure that it sounded awkward and nervous.

Suzaku shot him a quick look, Julius confused by the surprise that he saw there. It was gone as quickly as it appeared, Suzaku shaking his head and looking down at the mess of papers again. “Kaguya will want to see this.”

“So it’ll help.”

“It might.” Suzaku rubbed the back of his neck, offering Julius a sheepish smile. “Anything can help. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to use it. But at least we know what he’ll come after and we can use that to our advantage. It takes a load off of our minds too. Lelouch won’t be coming after us, neither of us are that important.”

“I doubt that. You said it yourself, ghosts aren’t good with years. And here you are, the Knight of Zero and the chairwoman of the UFN.”

The way that Suzaku sucked in a quick breath told him everything that he needed to know. Suzaku hadn’t even considered that. Julius wanted to roll his eyes, he couldn’t imagine Suzaku and Kaguya not being aware of their namesakes, especially Suzaku. Julius was sure that Japan made a point of ignoring the Knight of Zero as much as they could. It was a wonder that they hadn’t returned the body back to Britannia or made sure that it was tucked into some far off part of the country.

Suzaku stared at him for a moment before his smile mellowed out. “We’ll be fine.”

Julius snorted and glared down at the table. He was sure that Suzaku would keep smiling no matter how much he glared. “Don’t be such an idiot.”

That startled a laugh out of Suzaku. “You sound like my cousin.”

“Good. Maybe then you’ll see sense.”

“I’ve never been good at doing that.” Suzaku shuffled through the last of the papers before laying it down on the table. “Thanks for the information though. I don’t think we would have been able to do this much without you.”

“But-” Julius found himself reaching out for Suzaku, jerking his hand back to his side when the man turned to look at him.

“I really mean it. You and your sister have been more than helpful.”

He could only stare as Suzaku nodded and headed for the door. It was only after the door had slid shut behind Suzaku that Julius found himself able to move.

His first impulse was to rush to the door and catch Suzaku before he left, but Julius couldn’t imagine what he would do once he caught up to Suzaku other than drag him back into the library. He didn’t think that Suzaku would stay long beyond that, the man had an important job to do after all, a job that might end up killing him.

Julius retreated back into his chair, sinking into it with a groan. He stared at the door to the library, part of him hoping that Suzaku would turn around and come back, but he had no idea why. He had told Suzaku everything he had found out, leaving him with nothing else to give. Julius sighed and reached out for his cup of tea, clutching it close to him.

There was nothing left to do but let Suzaku go on with his job, but that didn’t assuage the worry that was coiling in his stomach. It was the same feeling that he had gotten when his mother had finally called to tell them the true extent of how bad the cancer had gotten. There was no real reason for the feeling, just a premonition that something was going to go badly.

He gritted his teeth, his nails scraping across the surface of the mug. If he was smarter he would grab Nunnally and get her away from Pendragon until Suzaku and Kaguya were done. It would keep the two of them safe from the ghost, especially since both Suzaku and Kaguya seemed jumpy about the two of them going anywhere near the Aries Villa. Unfortunately, there was nowhere else to go, at least nowhere without some kind of ghosts haunting them.

Julius groaned and leaned forward, resting the edge of the mug against the table. He couldn’t leave for more reasons than his sister’s safety. Some part of him wanted to figure out what was going on, to do something about it because he was involved now. It wouldn’t be a waste of effort if he could get something out of it, whatever it was. Julius was sure that none of his usual publications would run a story about the ghost. He shook his head, his gaze drifting back towards the door.

He couldn’t leave Suzaku, but that was for reasons that Julius couldn’t even begin to understand. With the way his mind was wandering, he didn’t think he would be able to drudge up a good answer. He was torn between just wanting to go to sleep and running after Suzaku to see the hunt to the end.

The only decision that made sense was to continue sitting at the table. The imperial palace was far enough away that Julius assumed that he was safe, at least for the time being. The smart thing would be to attempt to get some work done on his article, or to just go to sleep and wait until his sister came back with the next report about the status of the hunt.

Instead, he just stared glumly at his mug, turning over the information he had found about the Demon Emperor’s victims as his tea grew cold.

* * *

Kaguya sidestepped a tour group going through the cemetery, staring at some of the bright colored shirts as the tourists rushed past her. The tour group continued down the path, heading for what looked like grand monuments in the center of the graveyard. She thought she saw a statue of a serene seated woman, but the tour group blocked her view before she could get a good look at the statue. Kaguya risked rocking up onto her toes for a moment, staring at the cluster of monuments before shaking her head and lowering herself back down. She doubted that she would be able to get up towards the monuments, and it wasn’t her aim in the first place.

She glanced back over, still startled that Suzaku wasn’t with her. It was rare that they split up while on the job. There was safety in numbers and their weaknesses overlapped well. Still, it was better to have Suzaku going after important research than in possible danger. After what had happened the day before, Kaguya was loath to leave Suzaku anywhere the ghost might get to him.

She was just surprised that Nunnally had offered to accompany her. She had thought that the woman would have too much to do between her duties to Senator Maldini and the demands of her cousin, but Nunnally was completely free. Kaguya was almost suspicious that Nunnally had asked for the time off, but she was more than happy to have someone with her, especially someone who was familiar with the cemetery.

What they were looking for wasn’t on any of the maps, at least not that Kaguya could find. She had searched everywhere, but any references to where Lelouch vi Britannia was buried were few and far between. He had an official mausoleum inside the cemetery, but where it was seemed to be purposefully hidden from the public, not that Kaguya blamed anyone. She just wanted see where the Demon Emperor was buried. Once she had a good handle on that, then she might have an idea on how to move forward.

She tucked her hands into her pockets, watching another tour group move back from the monuments on the hill. Kaguya sighed and shook her head, readying herself to push through the crowds to the summit.

Kaguya took a step forward, hearing the sound of Nunnally’s wheelchair whirring over the gravel path beside her. She turned her head slightly to smile at Nunnally, surprised when the woman took the next path.

Nunnally slowed down, gesturing down the turn off. “It’s this way.”

“But wouldn’t it be…” Kaguya trailed off and gestured up the hill.

Nunnally shook her head. “Officially it’s somewhere up there, only because people seem to enjoy defacing the grave. Everyone in Pendragon knows it’s actually down this way.”

Kaguya fell into step beside Nunnally, the woman leading the way down the less crowded path. Nunnally kept silent for a moment before shrugging. “I guess it’s technically on the hill, although it’s on the backside. The way I heard it, the empress wanted her brother to rest in peace, so she protected his grave.”

“I thought she would hate him.”

Nunnally shrugged again. “Everything I’ve read says that they had been close. They survived a war together, after all. That has to bring people together.”

Kaguya shook her head. She could believe that, but she couldn’t reconcile the image of the loving brother with the evil mastermind. She shivered, too able to feel the searching eyes from the mansion than imagine a loving brother. “So, what happened?”

“They say he went mad.” Nunnally frowned, biting her lip for a moment. “Or that he was mad from the start, something about Britannian interbreeding. Personally, I think it was because the war came again. He and his sister had barely survived the last one and everything was going wrong. I think he just…snapped.”

“That’s no excuse for what he did.”

“No. There’s no excuse for that.” Nunnally went silent and stared at the path ahead.

From the look on her face, Kaguya was sure that she had offended the woman, a feat she hadn’t thought possible. For the few days that she had known her, Nunnally seemed to be very easy going, which was surprising considering her job. Kaguya had always assumed that someone would need to have a serious backbone to work closely with the Britannian Senate. Or maybe Nunnally hid it better.

Not for the first time Kaguya found herself wishing for the power that Aunt Kotori seemed to have, the one to just know people as instinctually as she seemed to know how to handle ghosts. It would help in getting a better read of some of her employers. There had been many who’d had no problems lying to them before, not that she thought that Nunnally would. Nunnally seemed to care about the ghost in a way that none of the others did, although that could just be because of the family connection.

Or maybe it was because she was Britannian. The Britannians seemed to want to hold onto their infamous emperor the same way the rest of the world wanted to forget him. They might have celebrated the day of his death like the rest of the world, but the decorations that Kaguya had seen being put up seemed to be celebrating the man itself instead of the freedom that the world had received with his death.

That could be a reason that the ghost was still around. Kaguya knew for a fact that the ghost’s appearances didn’t coincide with the anniversary of his death or any other important dates that she had managed to find. It could be that the Britannian people were accidentally keeping him around with their attachment to him, although Kaguya couldn’t imagine how to break that. If it were that alone, then the ghost of the Demon Emperor would continue to roam the halls of the Aries Villa for a thousand years more. Then there would be more deaths associated with him, more deaths that they could have prevented.

Kaguya curled her fingers in her pockets. She didn’t want to think about what she couldn’t do, it was more efficient to think about what she could do. Visiting Lelouch’s grave was one of the few things that she could think of that might work. Nunnally had said that people had desecrated it before, which was more than enough to anger a ghost. If she could see the state of the grave, then maybe she could work out a plan beyond the traps and holding measures that they had set up back at the villa. From the feelings she had been getting about the house, she was almost afraid that they wouldn’t hold.

It wasn’t too rare of a thing, what they put up tended to be generalized simply for speed. The sooner they were up, the sooner people were safe. Sometimes, they needed something stronger, but Kaguya hadn’t expected the ghost in the Aries Villa to be that strong, not so soon.

She bit her lip, lifting one hand out of her pocket to play with the zipper on her jacket. She shook her head to get the thoughts out of her mind. When that didn’t work, she took a deep breath, trying to tap into the serenity of the cemetery. Suzaku managed to do it immediately, but Kaguya couldn’t just drop in. She had to ease into it, like stepping into a hot bath. The feeling was a little bit different than the cemeteries were used to at home, but it wasn’t enough to throw her off.

The tension in her shoulders started to drip away, Kaguya taking a deep breath. She turned her head from side to side, looking at the neat rows of headstones and the flowers that were laid on some of the graves. Others were bare, but the lawn around them looked well cared for. Despite being the resting place of the Demon Emperor, everything looked good, like somewhere ghosts would want to rest.

She left her gaze drift back to Nunnally, watching the young woman as she guided her wheelchair confidently down the path. Kaguya found that she wasn’t surprised that Nunnally knew where Lelouch vi Britannia’s grave was. In fact, she was sure that the entire royal family knew. She could just imagine a late night procession to the place, maybe a kind of way to appease the spirit. Then again, that didn’t sound Britannian.

She must have made some kind of noise because Nunnally slowed down, the woman turning to look over her shoulder. “They say that his sister came to visit him until the day she died.”

Kaguya frowned at that. The person that Lelouch loved the most visiting him every day must have kept him quiet, but that didn’t make sense to her. Lelouch might have loved his sister once, but there was plenty of evidence that she had been part of the plan to assassinate him. The empress might not have ever condemned the rumors, but her silence had been more than enough for everyone else. Still, that didn’t mean that the empress couldn’t have had some kind of guilt for what had happened to her brother. It was a tangled web of emotions that Kaguya was glad that she didn’t have to work out. Ghosts tended to run on one emotion, mostly some form of anger. After all, revenge was just another form of anger.

Nunnally led her to the end of the path, Kaguya expecting them to find a small monument. Instead Nunnally turned towards a smaller path, one hemmed in by trees and bushes. Kaguya expected that the shaded walk was creepy at night, but it looked peaceful enough now. It was enough to make her curious about what the path looked like during the spring when everything was in bloom. Certainly there was nothing to complain about from the surroundings.

She kept looking around as they came out from under the trees, Kaguya frowning when she saw some cans of spray paint tossed carelessly in the bushes. They must have been recent because the rest of the cemetery looked clean, or one of the caretakers had just missed them. Either way Kaguya felt a tight knot of unease in her stomach. The Britannians might love the Demon Emperor in their own strange way, but she was sure that they hated him just as much. It wasn’t hard to cross that line.

Kaguya came to an abrupt stop when they stepped out of the shade of the trees, staring at the mausoleum that had been built. Kaguya was sure that it would have been satisfying for anyone, if not for the graffiti that was scattered around portions of it. A good three-fourths of the graffiti was scrubbed off, but there were still bright spots of paint. Kaguya couldn’t tell if there were any full words left, but that would take a walk around the building to discover. That she would do after she had looked at the inside.

She reached up to brush her fingers along one of the fluted columns. Graffiti or not, she could tell that there had been a lot of love into building the mausoleum, and an attempt at keeping it away from the crowds of people that were passing through. Aside from a secret burial, Kaguya couldn’t think of another way to have kept the place safe, not if the empress wanted to visit her brother’s grave. She was sure that a memorial would have been defaced, no matter how careful Empress Nunnally had been. It was a visible connection to the Demon Emperor.

Kaguya pulled her hand away, circling around the column towards the entrance of the mausoleum. She was surprised to find the inside in a state of partially disarray. Kaguya frowned as she stepped inside, staring at the tools and the building materials that had been carefully piled in different corners. Even with the mess, it was an attempt to keep it respectful. She looked over at Nunnally for answers, watching as the woman crossed over to the effigy that had been carved out of one of the floor stones.

Nunnally stared at the carved figure for a moment before turning to look around. “I heard that they were fixing the place up. The cemetery flooded last spring. Everything on the hill was safe, but there was some structural damage here. It looks good though.” Nunnally reached out to touch a column that looked like it had been recently scrubbed clean. She stopped short of touching the column. “Could this be causing him to act up more?”

“It could be.” Kaguya wished that she had brought along the records book, although she didn’t think that Lucille would have liked to have the book leave the house. She could vague remember the patterns, and they had seemed pretty steady, even with the work on the mausoleum. Her frown deepened as she started to circle the small space.

She wasn’t surprised that what few gifts could have been left were gone, the caretakers of the cemetery probably removed them to keep them safe from the construction that was going on. In their place were thick rugs, Kaguya assuming that they were there to protect the stone and the worker’s knees as they scrubbed and polished the mausoleum back into shape.

From what she could tell, there hadn’t been damage done during the work. The things that were being removed looked like they desperately needed replacing. Kaguya could see a few floor stones down at the opposite end of the small space that looked like they had been knocked out of place, a few of them sunken down. The flooding must have been bad to have pushed the stones out of place, although it looked more like the mortar had rotted away.

Kaguya took a step closer to the wall, grabbing onto one of the posts that the guide ropes must have been attached to. The ropes were gone to aide construction, leaving the effigy clear to anyone who entered. She couldn’t see any damage to the effigy, although the area around it looked cleaner than the rest of the floor. The work must have started on the image first, which was an appeasing gesture, even if the rest of the work was invasive.

She leaned over to look at the carving, frowning at the features. At least it was respectful, if bland. Lelouch just looked like he was asleep, his hands folded onto his stomach like thousands of other effigies that she had seen in old European churches. It seemed like just the right sort of thing.

Kaguya stood up straight again with a groan, rubbing her hand over her face. She had been so sure that there was something else going on, there had to be to make the ghost so angry. Disturbances like this wouldn’t cause killings or for the ghost to go after people. Restlessness was one thing, watchful was another. Kaguya couldn’t remember the last time there had been a ghost so watchful without some kind of pointed reason. They hadn’t even seen the ghost yet, and that was worrying.

She took a few steps forward, freezing when a stone wobbled under her foot. Kaguya stared down at the stones before taking a quick hop back, yelping when she knocked into Nunnally.

Nunnally was quick to grab onto her arms, the two of them backing out of the way as the stone wobbled and then listed to the side. It ground against the stone next to it, Kaguya watching as the two stones tipped. For a moment, it looked like the two of them were going to stay in place, but the second stone slipped, Kaguya wincing when it clattered to the space below the mausoleum.

She felt Nunnally back away, hearing her say something about getting the caretakers, but she was too busy staring at the gap that had opened up in the floor.

Cautiously, she stepped forward, testing the stones. A few more felt unstable, but they held under her weight. Kaguya looked down at the floor and swallowed before getting onto her hands and knees. She eased her way over to the hole, trying to stick to the side closer to the effigy. Kaguya inched her way closer to the hole, wrapping her fingers around the edge and pulling one of the surrounding stones back against its fellow. She didn’t know if it made the stone more stable, but it made her feel better.

Kaguya leaned forward, peering into the dark space under the floor. She was surprised by how deep it went. She had thought it would be a small room, a place for the coffin to sit underneath the structure. From what little she saw, the base of the mausoleum didn’t look finished, just a dirt floor. There was a chance that it was just debris from the flood, but her gut instinct told her to keep looking.

She rocked back onto her knees, looking over to where Nunnally had positioned herself by the door. The woman paused in the act of reaching for her phone, Kaguya waving for her to stay where she was. She didn’t trust the weight of Nunnally’s wheelchair on the loose stones.

Kaguya leaned a little further forward, hearing Nunnally gasp. She ignored the sound, squinting as she peered into the darkness. She couldn’t make out much from the dim light that was coming in through the hole, but it was enough to at least see the floor and part of the foundation of the mausoleum.

She focused on the floor first, trying to see the glint of stone under the dirt and muck, but it was too thick for her to see anything properly. It was just empty space. Even the wall didn’t seem to have an entrance to the bottom layer.

Kaguya frowned at that and pushed herself back onto the stolid pieces of the floor. She rolled onto her back, looking at Nunnally as the woman dialed a number on her phone.

Nunnally gave her a smile and held the phone up. “I’m calling the caretakers.” Her fingers hesitated over the call button. “Do you think he’ll be angry if we shut down the tomb?”

Kaguya shook her head. “If anything, the construction is making him act up.”

“You don’t sound sure.”

“I’m not.” Kaguya grunted and pulled herself forward a fraction to try and get a better look at the space below the floor. The stone she was supporting herself wobbled, but held. Kaguya let out her breath slowly, looking around at the underside.

She assumed that the walls of the foundation would have looked like the rest of the mausoleum, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. Kaguya frowned and twisted in place, carefully tucking her legs in when she turned close to the effigy. She rebalanced herself and leaned further in, hanging upside down for a moment before pushing herself upright. “How did they expect to clean this part? There’s no door.”

Nunnally paused in the middle of her call, muttering something into the phone before resting it on her shoulder. “What do you mean?”

Kaguya pointed down the hole. “I can’t see a door.  Unless they lowered the coffin down, I don’t see how they could have gotten it in.”

“I don’t know.”

Kaguya hummed and reached for her pocket. She wished she had brought a flashlight, but that would have to wait until they came back again. She would be sure to bring Suzaku, just in case she missed something. As it was, the whole place just felt empty and calm, like the rest of the cemetery.

She flicked her phone on, lowering herself back into the hole and looking around. Her phone didn’t provide much more light, just enough to make out the walls better. She assumed that the faint green she could see on most of them was from the flooding. Kaguya turned slowly in place, trying to find a way to lower a coffin. Or the coffin itself.

Kaguya stared down the hole for a moment before looking back at Nunnally, her stomach twisting. “Did they move the coffin when they started work?”

Nunnally paused in her conversation again, quickly conveying the question. Kaguya resisted the urge to hold her breath, just holding onto one of the stones by the hole like it was the only thing keeping her centered.

The answer seemed to take forever to come, Kaguya looking up at Nunnally when the woman sucked in a quick breath. Nunnally hesitated for a moment before resting her phone on her shoulder again. “They say they hadn’t moved the coffin. They didn’t want to disturb it in case its position was the only thing holding it together. Why?”

Kaguya took a deep breath and leaned over again, desperately hoping that her last check had been wrong. But the underground portion of the mausoleum was as empty as it was when she had first checked. She curled her fingers more tightly around her phone as she sat up, meeting Nunnally’s gaze.

She was sure that she didn’t have to say anything by the way Nunnally’s eyes widened, but the words tumbled out anyway.

“Because there’s no coffin down there.”

* * *

Suzaku wandered around the edges of the library, not really paying attention to what he was seeing. His mind was more on the house.

He had stopped off in his room to grab a notebook, anything that he could write in to sort out the twisting trails that seemed to elude him. Suzaku wasn’t as good at piecing together things on the fly like Kaguya did, sometimes he needed something solid to work off of before he could start forming plans. If he could just write down everything they knew about the ghost and what Julius had told him. Then maybe something would emerge, some kind of pattern that made sense.

Suzaku stepped away from the shelves, staring back toward the table where he had left the notebook, the book of records and the crumpled and burnt paper that he had found outside of the Emperor’s Room.

He had just meant to check on the traps, almost hoping that they had manage to snare the ghost in one place and contain it. They hadn’t had any luck, and they wouldn’t if the charred pieces of paper was any indication. The traps could hold most ghosts but, if they burned, that meant that what they were dealing with something very powerful, which could be a problem.

They were starting to cut it close. The twenty-eighth of September was just two days away, and it was never good to work on the days that the ghost had died. They tended to get more aggressive, and aggressive with the trends that they were seeing was going to be bad.

Suzaku carded a hand through his hair, turning in a slow circle in the library. The talismans in the libraries had all burnt out too, there were piles of ash on the floor. Suzaku was sure that Lucille would have a fit when she discovered them, especially with the odd looks she had been giving them all day. The caretaker was helpful, but there was something about her that seemed odd, especially with the way she seemed to go out of her way to avoid them.

But Lucille was a question for another time, there was something else to do. Suzaku slumped down into one of the seats, staring at the blank pages of the notebook. The information that Julius had given him was still swirling around his head, Suzaku biting his lip as he started jotting down notes, anything to make everything make sense.

There was something about the house, something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He could sense the anger and watchfulness that the ghost had, the way that it filled the entire house. Suzaku had almost expected it to feel stronger the closer it got to the twenty-eighth, but there were places where the feeling was almost choking. He cleared his throat at the memory, reaching up to rub at it.

For a moment, it felt like something was closing a hand around his throat, but he shook it off. Lelouch didn’t kill by choking, it was a clean stab through the stomach, like he had died. Like how Lionel Strickland had died, and Alexander Zambrano or Daniel Cotterill. Like what Lelouch had tried to do to Nunnally. Maybe like what Lelouch would try to do Kaguya and himself.

Suzaku stopped writing, the pencil shaking on the paper. He resisted the urge to reach down for his scars. Running his fingers over them wouldn’t help, it wasn’t even a charm. He didn’t know if the charm that his mother had given him would even work in this case.

He stared down at his page of messy notes before standing up and starting to pace around the room again. Maybe he and Kaguya had rushed into the job, maybe they should have waited until after the twenty-eighth. Then again, they had rushed because they had worried about what the ghost would do if they had waited. Suzaku knew that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if someone had died because they had delayed. Because of that, either he or Kaguya might be the ones dead. It wasn’t a perfect trade-off, but it was better than an innocent person dying.

Suzaku groaned and slumped against the bookcase, staring out into the hall. He could see two suits of armor through the open doors, like guards for the room. A shiver ran up his spine at the thought, Suzaku dropping his hands to brace himself against the bookshelf. There were times that he could forget about the fact that he was in a royal palace. It was hard to remember that when it felt like someone was watching him at all times. It was hard to remember with that kind of malice pushing into his head.

His fingers knocked against a book, Suzaku jumping when it tumbled to the floor. He glanced back at the door, staring at the two suits of armor before bending down to pick up the book. He chuckled as he bent down. The Aries Villa was almost making him as jumpy as Shinjuku did.

Suzaku turned the book over in his hands, raising an eyebrow at the fancy embossing on the front of the book. Some of the gold leaf was flaking off of the words, but there was still more than enough to read what it was. _Journal_.

He turned the book over in his hands. He doubted that it was the journal of anyone still alive, but it still felt wrong to open it. Suzaku glanced up at the door before shaking his head. It was probably just the journal of some royal personage, something that he might look at later before they left, if his curiosity got the better of him.

Suzaku flipped the book back, tipping his head to the side when he saw something slide out of the book. The paper dropped to the floor, Suzaku staring at it. He drummed his fingers against the spine of the book before leaning down to snatch up the piece of paper. He carried both to the table, intending to shove the paper back into its proper place.

He unfolded the paper carefully, his eyes widening as he saw the list of names and dates that were on the paper.

_Holders of the Honorable Position of Zero_

_Lelouch vi Britannia (2017-2018)_  
_Suzaku Kururugi (2018-2060)_  
 _Noriko Ohgi (2060-2083)_  
 _~~Lionel Strickland (2083-2086)~~_  
 _Chryssa Floros (2092-2102)_  
 _Mayur Sharma (1202-)_

Suzaku dropped the book onto the table, too shocked to bother wincing at the sound. He was too busy staring at the list of names.

He had known about Lelouch vi Britannia, videos of his assassination had acknowledged that he had been the leader of the Black Knights. But the idea that he had been behind it the entire time made him shake. The bastard had been behind the whole thing the entire time, Lelouch hadn’t even had to work to make the world turn to him, he’d made the entire world swing his way, and no one knew.

He dropped into the chair, staring at the paper. He supposed it didn’t matter, Lelouch was already dead and the harm had been done. It was the other names on the list that interested him.

Suzaku assumed that they had all once been Zero, the dates their entrance and retirement from the position. Just like Julius had told him Lionel Strickland had been one of the Zeros, but his name had been viciously crossed out, just like Suzaku assumed would have happened. There were two other names that caught his eye, one being Noriko Ohgi.

Everyone in Japan knew about Kaname Ohgi. The first post-occupation prime minister was practically worshipped for the good work he had done. The only reason he hadn’t been deified was that his children had politely declined because their father would have been too embarrassed. Even after years of fighting for Japan, Kaname Ohgi couldn’t accept the praise for what he had taken part in. His eldest daughter was just as famous, but only because she had disappeared.

There was plenty of proof that she had been alive and well, she had gone to Britannia to join the Royal Guard as a show of friendship between the countries. Then it was like she had just vanished from history. The time between her disappearance and her death was a mystery, except that Suzaku had it written out in front of him. She had been Zero, at least until Emperor Lance had murdered her in favor of one of his favorites.

That news settled him at least. The other name was the most unsettling.

Suzaku Kururugi. The traitor knight, his namesake, had died in 2018. It was a well-known fact. And yet there was a document that said he had lived until 2060.

Suzaku shook his head and pushed the paper away. It could all be a lie, which would make more sense than it being the truth. It was just a distraction on what his focus should be on, which was the case of the ghost. The best thing to do would be to pass it to Julius and hope that he could make sense out of it. Of course, by then, he would be far away, but he had never wanted to be in the limelight anyway. He was sure that he would get enough attention when the news came out, he always did when someone got obsessed with the traitor knight.

He groaned and shoved the piece of paper further away from him. It was easier to ignore it, just focus on the things that were important. He didn’t need complicated Britannian history getting in the way.

Suzaku played with the cover of the journal, opening and closing it before shaking his head. He pushed it to one side and pulled his notes and the record book close to him. There had to be something that they were missing, something that would make the whole thing make sense.

They hadn’t seen the ghost, and that was worrying. There was just the encroaching presence, one that surrounded him no matter where he was.

He slumped back in his chair and closed his eyes. There had to be something that they were missing, something that could coax the ghost out so he could get a better read on the thing. As it was, they were just flying blind.

He rubbed a hand over his face, sighing when nothing came to mind. No plan of attack and a deadline rushing up, it felt like some of their first cases when they’d barely had a handle on what they were doing. It made him want to laugh.

Suzaku sighed and opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. It felt like the walls were closing in around him, Suzaku sucking in a quick breath, but that caught in his throat too. The focus that he had been feeling intensified too, Suzaku feeling his skin crawling the more the focus pressed against him.

He jumped at a knock on the door, letting out the breath he had been holding in a rush. He turned to look at the door, feeling a different type of panic grow in his chest.

“Julius!” The man lingered by the door for a moment, his gaze tracking down to the books on the table before he looked up at Suzaku. By the way that he was still leaning against the door, Julius didn’t have any intention of coming in. Suzaku stood up, crossing half of the space between them before coming to a stop. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Why not?” Julius made an abortive reach for his pocket, freezing when Suzaku copied the motion. His fingers curled against the side of his pants. Julius swayed in place for a moment before stepping away from the door. “If I stick close to you I should be safe, right? After all, you and your cousin covered this place pretty well.”

Suzaku stepped forward, reaching out to rest his hand on Julius’ shoulder. The touch stopped Julius from moving forward, Suzaku shivering as the man looked at him. It took a moment for him to find the words, caught by Julius graze before he managed to look away. “You really shouldn’t be here.”

“But I can help, and it looks like you need it.” Julius’ gaze strayed over to the table.

“You’ve helped enough already.”

“That doesn’t mean I can just stop.” Julius side stepped around him, Suzaku shivering as Julius dragged a hand down his arm. “I have nothing better to do and being bored doesn’t suit me.”

Suzaku huffed, staring at the doors instead of turning around to look back at Julius.

He knew what he should do. He _should_ get Julius out of the villa before something happened. After everything they had gone over Julius should have known that he was in danger. The ghost had already tried to kill him once, and Suzaku was sure that he would have died if not for the people who had been in the villa. But he also knew that he might need Julius help to make sense of everything that was going on, just to have someone to talk to and force him out of the circles that it felt like he was constantly turning. It was selfish and dangerous, but he didn’t want to be alone on this, not when the villa was starting to feel like it was alive with everything that he was feeling.

He swallowed and stared at the ground, trying to get himself to turn around and tell Julius to go. Kaguya would be back within the hour and he would have someone else to discuss the ghost with. His cousin would be in just as much danger as he was, but at least they knew how to handle themselves.

Suzaku reached into his pocket to rub his fingers against the small silk pouch there. He thought he heard Julius suck in a quick breath, Suzaku feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise up at the sound. He spun around, expecting to see some sort of specter, maybe the image of the mad man that he had gotten used to seeing. All he saw was Julius, staring intently at the list of Zeroes.

Julius had braced himself over the table, Suzaku unable to see his expression, but the way that he held himself made him worried. Suzaku took a slow step forward. “Julius?”

He got a nervous laugh in response, Julius standing up quickly. Suzaku was relieved to see a smile on his face. “I can’t believe it. You found it.”

“You knew about it?”

“There’d always been rumors.” Julius turned to lean his hip against the table, crossing his arms over his chest. He turned the motion into a partial shrug. “Everyone talked about a document with all the Zeroes, I just assumed that it was fictional. Or that it would be current. It looks like it got put here with the rest of the empresses’ journals when King Richard cleared the royal library of all of Emperor Lance’s…things.”

Julius made a face of distaste before looking back at the list. “I almost wish it didn’t exist. Zero is meant to be no one, that’s the whole point.”

Suzaku stared at him, thrown by the strange comment. He had thought Julius would be happy, it was another article, another political twist that he seemed to love. Suzaku had seen the way his eyes had lit up when they had been going over why the ghost had targeted people. It had never been because of the killings, it had been because he was digging up secrets, stretching out and searching for things that no one else could find. And that had excited him. Here was another secret, another thing that Suzaku was sure no one knew but Zero themselves, and Julius wasn’t even interested.

He cleared his throat, taking a slow step forward. “The families need to know, in the end. I’m sure Noriko’s family would have wanted to know what had happened to her. Or Suzaku’s…”

“Suzaku didn’t have a family.” The words were snapped out almost too quickly. Julius looked surprised by his own anger for a moment before he relented, his shoulders relaxing. “But Noriko…I can see your point. Maybe the families should know in the end.”

He drummed his fingers against his arm before turning to look back at the table. His gaze trailed over the table before he moved to look down at the notes that Suzaku had written. Suzaku was surprised when Julius leaned over the notebook with a frown. He didn’t expect the man to get far, not between the Japanese characters and his messy handwriting. He was surprised when Julius turned the page, looking like he was getting through the characters easily.

Suzaku didn’t get the chance to ask if he needed help, Julius pushing the notebook away. The man stepped away from the table, shaking his head. “You do need help. You’re going about this all wrong.”

“How do you know?” Suzaku gestured at the table. “You’re the one who told me all of this.”

Julius hesitated for a moment before nodding. “I did, but I was being too narrow in my search. It’s important to know your enemy, it’s basic tactics.”

“The pattern is important.”

“It is, but you’re focusing too much on what the pattern is. What does it indicate?” When Suzaku shook his head, Julius growled and slammed his fist on the table. “What does the ghost want?!”

The last word echoed around the library, Suzaku staring in shock at Julius.

The man kept his stiff pose for a moment before he slumped, rubbing at his stomach. Julius sighed and looked up at Suzaku, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a sorrowful smile. “We need to know, for Nunnally’s sake.”

Suzaku sighed and leaned back against the closest table, closing his eyes. He understood Julius’ anger and worry, it was the same he felt for his cousin, for the both of them. It was hard to be powerless, especially when people’s lives were on the line. Suzaku nodded slowly, not bothering to open his eyes. “So, we need to know what the ghost wants. We know that he’s killed people to keep the empire the way he made it.”

He stopped when Julius make a disgusted sound, opening his eyes to look at the man. Julius had a blank expression on his face, but he was staring at a point beyond his shoulder. Suzaku watched him for a moment before shrugging. “So, he’s stuck here but he wants to get the empire back, which he can’t do unless he’s killing people. But that doesn’t even make sense because he could have gotten Nunnally when he broke her back.”

That dragged a pained sound out of Julius, but the man didn’t comment more. Suzaku rubbed the back of his neck, sighing while he tried to work out the tangle of his thoughts. “But he can’t have known Nunnally is important because she hasn’t done anything big. He can’t know what’s going on outside the villa unless someone tells him. So maybe he thinks that Nunnally is his sister instead of yours.” Suzaku paused before shaking his head. “But we know this, we worked it out before. Ghosts get confused by years. All we know that he just thinks she’s his sister. How will that help?”

He fixed Julius with a stare, waiting for his answer. He wasn’t prepared for the look of longing on Julius’ face. Suzaku swallowed and leaned back a fraction as Julius stepped forward.

Julius dragged his hand over the surface of the table, lifting it up when he hit the end of the table. Suzaku shivered as Julius reached out, but he didn’t move. He let Julius run cold fingers up his arm and cup his cheek. He sighed and leaned into the touch, finding himself smiling back at Julius.

Julius stroked his thumb over Suzaku’s cheekbone, staring eyes for a moment before shaking his head. Soft pressure on his cheek made Suzaku tip his head forward, closing his eyes when their foreheads touched. “You’re almost there. You’ve almost figured it out.”

Suzaku opened his mouth to ask what Julius meant when the pressure against his forehead was gone. He opened his eyes, staring up at Julius only to hear someone clear their throat behind him.

He spun around, fully expecting to see Kaguya at the door. Instead, he saw Lucille.

The caretaker leveled him a long look before her gaze shifted to Julius.

Suzaku felt the man tense, about to reach out to rest a hand on his arm when Julius pulled away from him. To his surprise, Julius stormed towards the door, locking eyes with Lucille as they crossed. Lucille was the first one to look away. She kept her gaze on the floor until he was out the door.

Suzaku leaned around the table, hoping to get a glimpse of Julius before he left. Julius’ abrupt departure surprised him, especially since the man had looked more than willing to stand and talk until something had been figured out. He leaned a bit further out, taking a quick step back when Lucille moved into his personal space.

“I told you to be careful.”

“I am.”

“This doesn’t look careful.” Lucille held up her hand, Suzaku swallowing at the ash that he saw. She raised her eyebrows at him before dumping the ash on the table and moving away. She wandered over to the table with the books, dragging her fingers along the edge of it. “I checked, all of them are like that.”

Suzaku swallowed, opening his mouth to speak. He didn’t get the chance to say anything, Lucille turning on her heel and glaring at him. She stepped forward, not moving her gaze from him. “Now, let me say it again. Be careful. I don’t want to haul another body out of here.”

She went to walk past him, Suzaku staring at her. She took a few steps away from him before he managed to shake himself out of his shock. Suzaku turned and touched her arm, quickly pulling his hand away when Lucille spun around. She raised an eyebrow at him, Suzaku curling his fingers back towards his palm.

Lucille looked him up and down before sighing. “Have you heard the story of the emperor and his knight?”

Suzaku shook his head, confused by her question.

Lucille raised a shoulder in a partial shrug. “I’ll make it quick then. Once upon a time there was an emperor and he chose his best friend since childhood to be his knight. No one loved the knight more than his emperor and no one loved the emperor more than his knight. Touching, right? Except that this story ends the same way all stories do, somebody dies. But this isn’t a fairytale, so you won’t get a miraculous save. The knight dies, and the emperor lives on without him, for years and years. And that kind of waiting will drive anyone mad. So I’ll say it again, be careful.”

Suzaku shook his head, trying to wrap his head around what she was trying to tell him. Nothing made sense if they were talking about the ghost. As far as he knew, Lelouch vi Britannia had never loved anyone other than his sister. It just sounded like a fairy tale, the insane ramblings of a madwoman.

He eyed the caretaker carefully, watching as she gave the corners of the library a long glance. She looked at all of places where one of their talismans had been placed, her eyebrow twitching at the piles of ash. Her attention quickly snapped back to him, Suzaku surprised to see her expression soften for a moment. “Listen to me for once, idiot.”

The last word was surprisingly soft, almost like an endearment.

Lucille sighed and muttered something under her breath before she left the room. The calm that had invaded the library from when Julius had entered disappeared as she left, Suzaku leaning against the table as the full force of the ghost’s attention fell back on him.

He curled his fingers around the side of the table, gasping for breath as he tried to shove against it. Whatever Lucille had told him might have been a fairy tale, but there was some truth in it.

There was no question that the ghost was restless and looking for something, it was just a matter of finding out what it was and using it to reel him in. Once they did that, they could capture him and exorcise him properly. Suzaku didn’t think it would be an easy matter of convincing the ghost to leave, not while it was so entrenched.

Suzaku shoved himself away from the table, walking back to his own. He flopped into the chair and pulled the books closer. He didn’t intend to leave the library until he found something that would help them, anything to draw the ghost out.


	7. Chapter Six: Secrets of the Demon Emperor

“'Twas night in the dwelling,  
and Norns there came,  
Who shaped the life  
of the lofty one;  
They bade him most famed  
of fighters all  
And best of princes  
ever to be.”  
– _Helgakviða Hundingsbana I_

* * *

Suzaku lifted his head from where it was pillowed on three books. The slow movement made his neck cramp, Suzaku hissing and rubbing at it. The gentle massage didn’t help much, but it was what he got for falling asleep while doing research. It wasn’t like it was the first time.

He sighed and let his hand drop back to the armrest of the chair, staring at the table piled high with books. He hadn’t found anything new in the hours he had been searching, and he didn’t know how much time he had wasted by falling asleep. Suzaku groaned and leaned backwards, letting his head loll to one side.

The corner of his mouth twitched when he saw Kaguya standing in the doorway. He glanced over at the one window he could see from his position before rubbing an eye. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough.” Kaguya pushed away from the doorway and strode towards him. Suzaku sat up at the approach, recognizing it for what it was. Kaguya was mad, and probably at him. He sunk back into his chair as Kaguya took the one opposite him, his cousin not even bothering to push aside the books that had been piled high. She just rested her forearms on the stack and stared him down. “How can you sleep down here?”

“Because I’m tired.” Suzaku rubbed at his other eye. “It’s hard to keep…whatever this is out.”

He waved a hand to gesture to the presence that haunted the house. Asleep it had been a bit better, like its attention had gone elsewhere. But, not that he was awake again, the presence was starting to press in again. Suzaku groaned and reached up to scrub a hand though his hair, not caring that it made his hair stick up even more. “We just need to finish this before someone else gets hurt.”

It didn’t calm all of his cousin’s anger, but Kaguya nodded along anyway. She lifted her arms off the stack of books, playing with the cover of the top one. “I know.”

“There’s just something we’re missing, something that just out of reach that would make this all make sense.” He saw his cousin wince, Suzaku ignoring it in favor of digging out the record book. “I think I’ve been through every book that had to do with Lelouch and the Aries Villa, I even read through all of Empress Nunnally’s journals.”

“Suzaku-”

“I tried to read Emperor Lance’s, but it’s like a bad romance novel. There wasn’t anything useful.” Suzaku got up and walked over to the bookshelf, looking the books over. He had done the same move what felt like a hundred times, but nothing had changed. He sighed and turned back to look at Kaguya. “Julius found something useful, but it was just the pattern of the people the ghost had killed, but it wasn’t what the ghost wanted.”

“Suzaku-”

“I don’t think we’re going to see him unless we find what he wants. It’s just a matter of finding what will really drag him out into the open instead of just…lingering.”

“Suzaku!”

He sucked in a quick breath as he turned on his heel, meeting his cousin’s gaze.

Kaguya was leaning across the table, braced on two different piles of books. She nodded when she realized that he was paying attention. She sank back into the chair, pushing her hair out of her face. “Nunnally and I went to Lelouch’s grave. He wasn’t there.”

“They moved the coffin?”

She shook her head. “We went through all the records that the cemetery kept and no one had removed the coffin. If it wasn’t them, then we have a hundred years that anything could have happened to it.”

Suzaku stared at her before sighing and leaning back against the bookshelf. That was one of their options completely out of the picture. If the cemetery _had_ had records of where Lelouch’s body had gone, then they could have just fixed up his grave and waited for results. Without the records, it would be impossible to track the body down, so impossible to settle the ghost that way. It was usually their safest option and it had been taken out of their hands. Without that, and a ghost that didn’t seem to be too interested in trying to talk to them, they would have to just guess until something went right.

He swallowed and pushed away from the bookshelf, choosing to lean on his chair instead of sitting in it. Even with Kaguya back and the oppressive presence pushing against him, Suzaku was sure that he would just fall back asleep. He curled his fingers tightly around the back of the chair, focusing on his cousin. “So we find out what else he wants?”

“What if he wants his body? That’ll be nearly impossible to find.” There was a note of panic in Kaguya’s voice, Suzaku trying to ignore it. They couldn’t break apart now, they had to stay strong.

He had seen what had happened to other ghost hunters who had shattered apart or pushed themselves too fast. He had watched one team get dragged down three flights of stairs before he was able to catch one of them. The others had died from their injuries, the one he had managed to save had quit the field and essentially disappeared. And then there was his Uncle Subaru.

Suzaku shook his head, pushing the thought away. He couldn’t focus on what they couldn’t do, just what they could. So far they were doing fine, both Julius and Nunnally were staying away from the mansion for the most part. The next time, Suzaku would make sure that Julius actually stayed out of the mansion until they were finished.

He leaned heavily on the chair, staring at the pile of books. He knew that the answer had to be in there, or in something that they had been told.

All ghosts wanted something; that Suzaku knew. They wanted to be remembered, wanted to see one important person one last time, or wanted to pass on. It was just a matter of finding what Lelouch wanted and seeing if they could give it to him. If they managed that, the ghost would pass on easily. If not, then they would have to force the ghost to rest, which was never the best option because it sometimes didn’t hold and it exhausted them.

He closed his eyes, listening as Kaguya sighed. He tipped his head as he heard a rustle of paper, taking it to mean that Kaguya was starting to work with him. She knew what to seek out, it was just a matter of narrowing it down from all of the sources that they had gotten. Most ghosts were a simple case, but Lelouch had mixed himself in with Britannian politics. There was every chance that what Lelouch really wanted was beyond them to give.

Then again, as long as no one else died, Suzaku was willing to give anything.

Kaguya was mumbling to herself as she worked, Suzaku catching every other word. He tried to tune her out, going over everything that he had been told, but it was hard to focus.

The presence in the house was pressing in again, Suzaku gritting his teeth as he bowed under the pressure. For a moment, he wanted to forget about the passage of time or the ghost that was stalking through the halls of the mansion. He wanted to go back to sleep, just enough for him for the presence to get out of his head. That or just leave, put enough distance that he didn’t feel constantly watched or his head feeling like it was filled with cotton.

He reached up to rub at his forehead, expecting the pain to peak into a headache, but it just hovered at the edge. The ghost was surprisingly strong, and surprisingly narrow minded. Suzaku couldn’t tell much about the ghost, but he could at least tell that.

“Suzaku?” He looked up as his cousin called his name. Kaguya had a worried expression on her face, her attention on him instead of the books. “What’s happening?”

Suzaku shook his head. “It’s just this house. He’s everywhere in it.”

“Him and no other ghost.”

The statement was true, and strange. Usually there were plenty of ghosts that went along with violent deaths, but the place was silent save for the one ghost. Suzaku glanced around the library before pulling out his chair. He still stood beside it, using his vantage point to look down at the books that Kaguya was starting to open up.

She barely glanced at them for more than a minute before shoving them aside with a sound of disgust. Suzaku didn’t think she was actually reading them, not with the way she barely glanced at the pages she was flipping through.

Kaguya worked her way through a stake before shoving it across the table angrily. “We haven’t even seen the ghost. How many times has that happened?”

“Not too many.” Suzaku rushed forward to catch the stack of books, managing to keep all but one from falling off the table. He glanced at his cousin, not surprised to see that she had busied herself with something else. He sighed and found a space for the stack of books, settling them down safely before bending over to pick up the one that had fallen.

Suzaku stared at the front cover, slightly amused by it. He didn’t remember picking out a photo album, but he had been grabbing any books that looked like they had anything to do with the house. He twisted and set the photo album on the table, absently flipping it open as he looked at his cousin.

He didn’t move past the first page, watching Kaguya carefully. His cousin was still looking through the books like they would have all the answers, something that Suzaku was beginning to doubt. There were too many twists and turns dealing with this ghost. First he was quiet, then he was aggressive. First it had seemed to not care about what was going on, then he was killing for the sake of Britannia. Everything was a contradiction, something that they didn’t have time for. They could dig through all the accounts, but there was only one real way to get what they wanted.

He curled his fingers on the page, holding them there for a moment before letting them relax again. “We need to set a trap.”

“We did that. They all burnt.”

“We need to do something that he can’t resist.” Suzaku licked his lips, immediately hating the first thought that his mind jumped to. He shook his head to clear it. “We know that he has a type, Julius figured it out. If we can get him to fall for it, then maybe we can hold him long enough to figure out how to get rid of him.”

Kaguya didn’t immediately throw away his plan, which was a good sign. She just stared at him for a moment before abandoning the book entirely, sitting back in her chair. “It…it might work. We could make stronger talismans, things keyed to him specifically. But the bait has to be perfect. The stronger we go, the more he’ll notice the trap.”

“So we make the bait irresistible.” Suzaku glanced down at the first photo. It was a formal picture of the royal family, but it didn’t look as stiff as some of the later ones. Everyone was laughing, even the staff that was being photographed. Suzaku could almost believe that it was one big family and, with Empress Nunnally’s reputation, he was almost sure that they were. He rested his finger against the carefully written inscription at the bottom of the page.

To make the bait irresistible they would have to make it a person that the ghost wanted. It wouldn’t be too hard to find someone that fit the ghost’s pattern. Suzaku would have been willing to use himself as bait and he was sure that Kaguya would have been just as eager to volunteer, except the ghost didn’t seem interested in either of them. They had been in the mansion for nearly three days and nothing had happened. To get the ghost to come to them they would need someone else, a person that Suzaku would like to keep out of the business as much as possible.

He sighed and looked back up at his cousin. Kaguya was drumming her fingers against the table, her eyes narrowed as she thought. But the way the corner of her mouth kept twitching, she didn’t like the conclusions that she was coming to.

She grumbled under her breath before looking up at him. “It has to be one of the Kingsleys. He’s come after them before.”

“We’re not doing this without their permission.”

“Of course not. We’re going to tell them everything, we’ll need to if it’ll work.” She rubbed at her eyes before leaning back in her chair. “I think I have a plan, but we’ll have to make it work. I don’t think the ghost will fall for this kind of trap again.”

“Neither do I.” Suzaku looked back down at the photo album, looking at the first photo before turning the page. He wanted something to distract himself from the sickening rolling sensation in his stomach. It didn’t matter that they would only go forward if one of the Kingsleys agreed to the plan, he had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

He didn’t look up when Kaguya stood, just nodding when his cousin said that she was going to make the call. He curled his fingers around the edges of the photo album, burying himself in the pictures of the royal family at the Aries Villa through the years.

The family was always smiling in the picture, even as the members grew and shrunk depending on the year. Nunnally always managed to be there, but the number of children wavered, probably because they were out of the country. Further in, Suzaku saw that the Emperor of China and Aurelia had joined the group with a baby and a toddler. But the half circle around the empress remained the same, a mix of children and staff even until Nunnally’s last years.

There were only a few pictures of Emperor Lance in front of the building, most of them seemed to be mid-party. The ones that did have the Emperor had him and his favorites with the servants skulking on the edges of the picture. There were even fewer of King Richard, one that Suzaku assumed was a few days after his coronation and another that looked more like a vacation photo than anything else. After that, half the remaining pages were filled with pictures of the house and staff and the other half were blank.

Suzaku flicked through a few of the blank pages before shaking his head and turning the book back to the front page to stare at the first picture. He looked down at the caption, the corner of his mouth twitching up into a smile as he read it.

_‘Her Imperial Majesty, Nunnally vi Britannia, Duke Alain and Prince Arthur with the staff at the Aries Villa.’_

Suzaku shook his head, scanning over the smiling faces. Even the servants looked happy, although most of their looks were directed at the young prince held in his father’s arms.

Just below the initial caption was a list of all the servants’ names, Suzaku skimming over them until he found the last name Clarissant. He looked down the line of servants, raising an eyebrow at the woman standing towards the back with a look of disinterest on her face. From what Suzaku could see, Lucille Clarissant was the spitting image of her ancestor.

Curious, he flipped back through the photographs, glancing at the captions to mark the passage of time. Through half of Nunnally’s reign Grace Clarissant was the caretaker of the villa before the title passed onto Corabelle Clarissant. To Suzaku’s eye, there was no discernable physical change, save for the hair color. He frowned and leaned closer to the photos, flipping between the last known photo of Grace and Corabelle, but there was no difference.

He swallowed and searched for the next Clarissant, not surprised when Francis Clarissant looked much like the other two. She wasn’t in as many pictures as Corabelle or Grace, but there was no doubt that it was the same. Near the end of King Richard’s reign, the caretaker switched to Lucille.

Suzaku sat back in his chair, staring at the latest picture of Lucille. The woman was walking through the halls with the same confidence that Suzaku had seen her moving around the house. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, trying to work out the new puzzle.

He had seen families with generations that bore a surprisingly resemblance to each other, Kaguya’s was one of them. But this was a case of nearly carbon copies, nothing like the families that he had seen. This was more like someone changing their name, but over a span of generations. Not even the oldest person in the world could do that, not even if they tried.

Suzaku carefully slid a few photos from their place, shuffling them around for a moment before holding them up. If he didn’t pay attention to the monarchs in two of the photos, he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the Clarissants.

He closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing harshly. Suzaku could feel his hands shaking, but he couldn’t let himself fall apart. He and Kaguya had been wondering why there was only one ghost in the house after everything that had happened; they just hadn’t been looking in the right place.

Suzaku shoved the photographs in his pocket as he scrambled to his feet, not caring that his char fell over backwards. It could be set back into place later, finding his cousin took precedence.

He had found their second ghost.

* * *

C.C. rubbed at her stomach, bemused by the way she kept searching for bruises. It had been centuries since she had held any kind of wound, it was part of holding the code. And yet, she was searching them out. She hissed and scrubbed at the spot, trying to drive away the lingering feeling of the knife sliding in. She shivered and dropped her hands away, glancing around the hallway before shaking her head.

She couldn’t spend the day thinking about what Lelouch had done to her, there were too many things that needed to be done. For one, she needed to find something she could use to make sure Lelouch couldn’t get to her again. She didn’t want to wake up in the underground chamber again, even if she had rigged the tunnel to open up so she could get out. Waking up in that place hadn’t been the worst, but C.C. was not keen to repeat the experience. The entire time she had walked back up the passage she had been expecting Lelouch to come rushing in to kill her again.

It was nothing like she had expected, and she couldn’t begin to think of a reason for it. Then again, she was more attuned to the world of the living than the world of the dead. Even C’s World could be considered living, because there was still a consciousness there. It was a united one, but a living one all the same.

C.C. wiped her palms on her skirt, trying to push away her unease. She was safe for the time being, Lelouch’s attention was elsewhere. Of course, the fact that she hadn’t been aware that he was close to her until too late didn’t bode well. She had always been able to track Lelouch if he was in range. She could still sense him in the house, but that could mean little to nothing if he could sneak around her. If that was the case, then they were all in more trouble than she had originally thought.

She came to a stop at the top of the staircase, staring down into the entrance hall. C.C. reached out to grab onto the railing, curling her fingers around it. The time for a hard choice was coming, one that C.C. wasn’t looking forward to. Until the time came, she needed to know what she had to decide between. To do that, she would have to find a way into the library.

As far as she knew, there were people in the library. She could see the other hallway well enough from her perch, which would give her a hint when they came out. As soon as the room was clear, she would start her own research. The two might be out for hours, which would give her a good head start.

She leaned against the railing, preparing herself to wait for a while and then pretend that she was doing something. C.C. didn’t want to risk sneaking too close to the library, she didn’t think that the girl would allow it. She had only managed to watch before when the boy was working, if only because he was too distracted by what was going on. She narrowed her eyes at that thought, easing her hold on the railing. There were too many interesting developments for her taste. In this case, she liked things simple and in a regular pattern.

“Lucille?”

C.C. tensed when someone shouted, recognizing Kaguya’s voice a moment later. She swayed in place, tempted to run to another room and hide until the two passed.

She didn’t get the chance, her eyes widening as Suzaku barreled into the hall. She watched as he glanced towards the door before he turned to look right at her. His eyes widened as he spotted her, C.C. contemplating giving him a lazy wave, not that she expected him to pay attention to her. Suzaku and Kaguya had other things to worry about, things that were coming more pressing with the way that they were rushing around.

C.C. pushed away from the railing, about to step away when she noticed that Suzaku was clutching something in his hand. She leaned back on the railing, jumping back when Suzaku pivoted on his heel and raced up the stairs.

She took a few steps back before giving up the chance to run. It might not be the Suzaku she remembered, but C.C. was sure that there was no world where she would be able to outrun him. Besides, she had a gut feeling that she didn’t want to. From the look on his face, there was a situation that needed solving.

She turned so her back was against the wall, watching as Suzaku came to a stop at the top of the stairs. He wavered there for a moment before approaching her. C.C. raised an eyebrow as he stared, crossing her arms over her chest. “You need something?”

Suzaku gave a curt nod, holding out four photographs. “An explanation.”

C.C. lifted a hand, not sure if she really wanted to accept the pictures. If she did, then that would mean an end to everything, at least for the moment. She had always known that someone would have noticed someday. There were plenty of people that would accept a hand wave and a quick lie, but not all people.

Not Suzaku.

She sighed and closed her eyes. It was better to get the truth out, especially with the situation as it was. She wasn’t about to turn down help from an ally, especially when she had run out of her own ideas. She had never been able to control Lelouch, just nudge him in the direction that she wanted. With Lelouch not listening to her at all it was better to enlist help before she ended up like the others that Lelouch had decided to get rid of.

She heard a floorboard creak as Suzaku shifted, opening her eyes to give him a long look. He didn’t look ready to sit through a long explanation, not that she blamed him. Then again, she _had_ warned him that the villa was full of secrets; it wasn’t her fault if he hadn’t thought that she was one of them.

C.C. stepped away from the wall, still ignoring the photographs that were held out to her. She was tempted to push them away, but she wasn’t sure how Suzaku would act. He wasn’t the soldier from before, but C.C. had read up on him before she had ever put the idea of hiring Suzaku and Kaguya into Euphemia’s head. Suzaku might not have spent his childhood training in martial arts and then four years in the military, but he had taken part in a few martial arts classes, mostly before his mother had made him her apprentice. C.C. was sure the lack of training wouldn’t hurt him much, not after years of running after and fighting off ghosts.

She absently rubbed at her stomach again, seeing Suzaku’s gaze jump to the motion of her fingers. C.C. huffed and dropped her hand back to her side.

She stepped past him until she was standing on the top step, almost amused by the stand-off they had going. If she hadn’t been pressed for time, she would have drawn it out, seen what this new version of Suzaku could do. Before, it had always been easy to read what he was going to do, the perfect soldier and the righteously angry man. Now there were nuances she didn’t quite understand, which left her the chance to read him completely wrong.

She caught the flash of impatience across his face, the expression a familiar one from the months before Zero Requiem. “Lucille-”

C.C. held up a hand, smirking when Suzaku snapped his mouth shut. At least the surprise was making him easy to read, something that she wanted to hang onto for a little while longer. It would be hard enough getting them to believe what she had to say, especially with Kaguya hanging around. It would be even harder if she wasn’t careful where they stood. Lelouch might have lost interest in her, but that didn’t mean that he would ignore her completely.

She glanced down towards the rooms that Lelouch had once slept in, almost expecting to see him standing in the hallway or peering out of the door, but the hallway was silent. She was relieved at that. The last thing she needed was to have Lelouch snooping in on them.

So far, he hadn’t seemed to suspect anything only because he had been distracted; first with the cleaning of the house and then with whatever was holding his attention. C.C. would have been relieved if she hadn’t been sure that Lelouch was plotting something. The boy might have been dead, but that didn’t mean that his mind had stopped working.

She shook her head, stepping down onto the stairs. “We’re not talking here.”

“Why not?”

C.C. shot him an annoyed look. “I know you’re smarter than that, boy.” She crooked her finger at him, watching as Suzaku turned in place. “Follow me, and make sure your cousin comes too.”

She turned around and walked down the stairs, trusting that Suzaku would follow. If he didn’t then she was sure that Kaguya would follow. Kaguya wasn’t one to let a mystery lie, not in any reincarnation.

C.C. paused at the bottom of the stairs, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift briefly. Lelouch seemed to be everywhere in the villa at once, completely unfocused. There was every chance that he would be listening, but she couldn’t risk raising his suspicion by walking the two ghost hunters outside. There wasn’t really a place where Lelouch didn’t go, but there was a place he had avoided, one that he had good reason to.

She opened her eyes and turned on her heel, striding past an amazed Kaguya and down the hallway. C.C. didn’t bother to look around as she passed the great hall and the library, heading for the T-junction and the corridor that ran along the back of the house. She turned to the left at the junction, heading for the single door at the end of the corridor.

The door opened easily, C.C. staring at the small room that had been her sanctuary for a hundred years. She had become comfortable in one place, although she had never really gathered too many belongings. Everything was still neatly sorted into a pile of things that she could take and things that could be left behind. And, as always, there was a bag packed and ready to go. C.C. had always thought that she would be able to just walk away and disappear without complications. She shook her head and reached out to pat the wall, frowning as some of the wall paper flaked off revealing the red paint underneath.

C.C. sighed and looked down at her hand. She had thought that the museum staff would have taken care of her room too, especially after she had done them the favor of moving up into the attic to keep out of their way. The room was important, at least according to all the history books she had read and the early tourist days of the villa. Everyone wanted to see the room that the Demon Emperor’s body had laid in before he was sent back to Britannia. The fascination was beyond her. All C.C. cared about was the fact that the room seemed to disgust Lelouch almost as much as it had drawn the tourists in.

She stepped over to the bed, picking up Cheese-kun and holding it close. The stuffed animal was a little worse for the wear, but it had been her loyal companion and good luck charm for years. Holding it close calmed her, C.C. running her fingers over its worn sides as she watched the cousins walk in.

Kaguya was the only one to stare at Cheese-kun, Suzaku was too busy looking around. C.C. saw him glance over at the wallpaper, his eyebrow twitching. He quickly looked away, frowning as he looked around the room. She let him carry on with it for a while before clearing her throat. “He’s not here.”

“How do you know?”

“He doesn’t like it here.” C.C. raised one shoulder in a shrug. “I thought for sure you would try and get into this room during your early canvassing.”

Kaguya dragged her gaze away from Cheese-kun, starting to wander around the room. “It wasn’t anything other than the Caretaker’s Room on the map.”

“It was purposeful, a way to trick the tourists from gathering here. It also gave me a chance to live somewhere other than the attic.” She reached back to flip her hair over her shoulder. “As I said, he doesn’t like it here. It reminds him of too much. So, you’re here to demand an explanation from me?”

Suzaku seemed surprised by the way she pulled the conversation in the new direction, but she didn’t have time for his niceties. Lelouch didn’t like the room, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t pay attention to what was going on.

C.C. glanced at the pictures Suzaku still clutched in his hand. She rocked forward to grab them from his hand, sighing when she saw the one at the top of the pile. She remembered telling Nunnally that it was better that she remain out of pictures just because this kind of thing could have happened. It would have been easier to slip through the decades unnoticed if she had only existed on paper, but she had found herself bending to Nunnally’s request anyway. She flipped through the other ones, nodding when she was done.

Someone had done what she had expected and put together all the pieces. She had just always thought that she would have time to duck out. Instead, she was going to have to stay in the villa until things were cleared up. Lelouch was still her responsibility after all. She had made a promise to him, and she intended to keep it. He hadn’t quite gone the way that Mao had, but C.C. felt that he had strayed close enough. It was time to end it before someone else got hurt.

She passed the photographs back to Suzaku. “That’s me.”

His brow furrowed as he thought what she had said through. “Which one?”

“All of them.”

“But how?”

“You question me when you two chase after ghosts?” C.C. laughed, sweeping her bangs back from her forehead. She saw Suzaku flinch and reach for his pocket. She raised an eyebrow at his reaction, but just turned to Kaguya, letting the woman stare at the mark before letting her bangs drop.

Kaguya was the one to step forward with an interested look on her face. “What is that?”

“A curse. A blessing. A code.” C.C. shrugged. “It’s nothing that you can know, unless either of you want to enter a contract with me.”

She meant it as a joke, but neither of the cousins looked like they understood it. As far as she knew, that was better than them remembering things. If that was the case, then she would have to deal with a half crazed ghost and the grudges of a past life.

C.C. straightened her bangs out before she crossed her legs on the bed. She clutched Cheese-kun closer, watching the two of them. “I am all of those women. I made up the family.”

“Why?”

“Because I made a promise to Empress Nunnally.” It didn’t matter that the promise had only been assumed to hold until Nunnally had died. That time had long passed but she had stayed on because it had seemed like the right thing to do. Because it had been comfortable. Because some part of her had not been ready to leave Lelouch.

Kaguya huffed, C.C. turning to her head to watch as the woman finished up her search of the room. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. From the skeptical look on her face, C.C. was sure that she wasn’t going to get away with a quick explanation. She let her breath hiss out between her teeth, curling her fingers deeper into the worn fleece of Cheese-kun. She didn’t want to drag on their conversation with facts that they were sure not to believe, not when there were other, more important things to cover.

She rubbed her fingers around a hole that was starting to grow in the stuffed animal’s side, sighing. “Empress Nunnally asked me to watch over the house and her family. She welcomed me in.”

“Why?”

C.C. shrugged. Nunnally had been more of a mystery at times than Lelouch. She had been so much like Marianne, but she hid the devious, twisting plans in her mind well. Nunnally had been tempered by her time blind and in a wheelchair, she had learned patience and care where her mother had not. It had been a privilege to watch Nunnally rule Britannia.

When C.C. kept quiet, Kaguya sighed and sat down in the one chair in the room. “How have you survived this long, looking the same way?”

“It’s a curse.” C.C. glanced between the two of them, not surprised that they relaxed a little.

She had found that the simplest explanation was often the best. People would believe a curse more often than they would believe the story about powers and immortality. It was a strange contradiction, but one that she wouldn’t hesitate to exploit. It would speed things up, which could only be a good thing.

But neither of the two seemed sure, Suzaku was even leaning forward like he was going to touch her forehead. C.C. frowned and leaned back, grabbing his hand when he reached out. “It’s nothing you can fix.”

“But-”

“You have bigger problems, boy.”

Suzaku sputtered, looking over at his cousin, probably to see if she was going to back him up. To her relief, Kaguya didn’t seem too interested in dragging the conversation out for much longer. Still, C.C. was sure that she wouldn’t be able to keep from explaining herself for long. As soon as the current problem was done with, Kaguya would come looking for her answer. C.C. would just have to be on the road long before that.

She shifted her hold on Cheese-kun, dropping him into her lap instead of clutching it to her chest. She let her arms fall loosely around the stuffed animal. “I don’t think either of you are stupid enough to not know the importance of the date coming up. I wouldn’t have brought you over if I didn’t think you could do the job.”

“You?” Suzaku tensed, C.C. fighting a smile as the recognized the posture. She couldn’t imagine that Suzaku would enjoy being manipulated in any life.

C.C. just nodded. “I needed the best if the worst happened.”

Kaguya studied her carefully from her seat on the wall. C.C. watched as Kaguya drummed her fingers on her arm before nodding. “So, you’ve been watching the ghost, just in case he got out of control. When he did, you told Nunnally about us, because you thought we could do something.”

“The newspapers keep calling you the best in the world. I thought that I might as well test that claim out.”

“Because you’d only get one chance?”

C.C. raised a shoulder in a shrug. She couldn’t predict Lelouch like she used to, there was something about lingering after death that did something to a person. C.C. wasn’t sure if it came from the flickering connection with C’s World, something that humans didn’t have much contact with in their life, or the sudden single focus of emotions. In the end, she didn’t care, all she knew was that it had turned Lelouch dangerous and she wasn’t willing to let it go any further.

She shifted on her bed, leaning forward. Suzaku stepped forward to complete the small circle, an intense look on his face. C.C. watched him out of the corner of her eye. She was fairly sure that the two would help her, although how much they would listen to her was something else entirely.

She stroked her fingers over Cheese-kun’s sides, considering the two of them. She lost her patience as the silence dragged on, C.C. digging her fingers into the stuffed animal’s sides. “Do the two of you have a plan?”

Suzaku shifted in place, his gaze immediately dropping to the floor. C.C. raised an eyebrow at the move. So they did have a plan, but it wasn’t one that Suzaku liked. From the way that Kaguya was biting her lip, she didn’t like it either. She kept silent, just looking between the two of them.

She had never doubted that the two of them were the best in their field, she had done her research. It didn’t matter that she had known them in their past lives, all that mattered was how they were acting in the present. From what she had seen, they had both taken measures that would have dealt with any other ghost. It would have worked, if they had been dealing with any other ghost, but one hundred years of being dead hadn’t changed Lelouch that much. And that was the problem. Everything they planned Lelouch was working on a countermeasure for. The only way that they could get ahead of him was to go right for one of his weaknesses and hope that it still worked.

After a moment more of silence Kaguya shook her head. “We were planning to lure him out with a trap. Not like the ones we set before.”

“Clearly those didn’t work.”

Kaguya nodded slowly, almost like she was giving her agreement begrudgingly. C.C. let her remain silent on that, not bothering to push. She needed the two of them too much to push them away.

C.C. readjusted her hold on Cheese-kun, pausing when she caught the edge of Lelouch’s consciousness. From the way that Suzaku tensed, he felt it too. She watched as he turned in place, tracking the movement with surprising precision. Suzaku’s eyes went unfocused, the man swaying towards the door before he stopped himself. Suzaku shook his head and looked back at her C.C. raising her gaze to the ceiling.

“Feels like he’s pacing the upstairs.”

She looked away from the ceiling when Kaguya pulled her chair forward, the legs scraping on the wooden floor. C.C. glanced over at Suzaku, but the man didn’t step closer; he seemed to still be tracking the progress of Lelouch through the house. Out of all of them, perhaps it would be better for Suzaku to keep a look out for Lelouch. He seemed to have the better sense of him out of the three of them, far better than the second hand connection through C’s World that she had.

C.C. watched him for a moment longer before turning her attention back to Kaguya. “So, you want a trap. What’s your bait?”

Kaguya shifted in her seat, glancing over at Suzaku before shaking her head. “Suzaku says it has to be someone that fits his pattern, someone he’s been after before. It has to be irresistible, or we might not get another chance.”

C.C. nodded slowly. Lelouch was becoming increasingly erratic and there was no telling when he would pop up again. For all she knew, Lelouch would just be increasingly active until the twenty-eighth before going silent again. He could go silent for years and remain that way until long after Suzaku and Kaguya had died. Then she would be on her own, trying to figure out the tangled mess of what remained of Lelouch.

She turned around to deposit Cheese-kun carefully on her pillows. C.C. turned back to look at the two, drumming her fingers against her knee. “Who, specifically, were you thinking about?”

“Nunnally.” Kaguya slumped forward as she spoke the name. She rubbed her hands over her face before looking back at C.C. “It has to be Nunnally.”

C.C. glanced over at Suzaku, waiting to see what his verdict would be. The only response was the tightening of Suzaku’s jaw before his attention went away. C.C. couldn’t feel Lelouch in the house, but she was sure that Suzaku was still tracking him in some way. That or he was just pretending to. Suzaku tipped his head back, staring at the ceiling before his gaze slid away again.

She let him continue his surveillance, resting her chin in her palms. “What do you think about it, Suzaku?”

He winced, but he didn’t look over at her. “She fits the pattern. He’s tried to kill her before. Why wouldn’t he want to finish the job?”

C.C. hummed, lifting one hand to pick at a piece of lint on her pants. The two of them were completely wrong on why Lelouch would go after Nunnally, but there was no harm in letting them continue to think that. It had been one hundred years of propaganda against Lelouch, just the way that he wanted it. The one thing that they were right about was that Lelouch would come after Nunnally, no matter what.

C.C. flicked the piece of lint away from her, glancing at the two. Neither of them looked comfortable with the plan, which was good. They would need to be on their toes, especially on the off chance that Lelouch was paying attention to them. C.C. didn’t imagine that she would be able to run interference, at least not for long. She clasped her hands together again, squeezing them tightly for a moment before relaxing. “I’ll leave the trap up to you.”

“And what will you do?”

She glanced over at Suzaku, standing up slowly. “You’ll have my help; that I promise. Beyond that, you’re the experts.”

It wasn’t the answer that either of them wanted, but it was the only one that they were going to get from her. She didn’t like the idea of running into Lelouch again and being killed by him. The experience of dying and waking up against wasn’t one she liked to repeat. Besides, she was at a loss of how to deal with him other than talking to him, and that hadn’t worked the few other times that she had seen him.

C.C. walked over to the door and opened it. She tipped her head to the side, glad that the two took the hint. She couldn’t risk letting their talk go on much longer, and she didn’t seem to be needed any longer. C.C. couldn’t imagine what the two of them would do with her, especially since she knew nothing about the ghost hunting business. Her job would be continuing to move through the house like nothing was going on. It wouldn’t fool Lelouch for long, but it would buy the others time enough.

She held her place by the door as Kaguya and Suzaku passed, reaching out for the latter.

Suzaku came to an abrupt stop when she tugged on his arm, turning his head to look at her. C.C. leaned around him to watch Kaguya, nodding at her when the woman stopped in the middle of the hallway. Part of her was tempted to just wave Kaguya on, but she doubted that the woman would leave her cousin with everything that was going on.

C.C. turned her attention back to Suzaku, squeezing his arm once before letting go. “Stay on alert. This is your last warning.”

“So you keep telling me.”

“I mean it.” She shifted so he could scoot past her, not surprised when he didn’t move away. Suzaku kept looking at her like she had all the answers, an idea that made C.C. want to laugh. If she had managed that miracle, she wouldn’t have spent the last one hundred years lurking in an old house.

If she had managed that, she wouldn’t have trusted an old nun ten hundred years ago.

She let her expression soften a bit, reaching out to pat his arm before moving away. “Make sure he moves on to wherever you send ghosts. You won’t get a second chance if you make a mistake.”

“We don’t make mistakes.”

C.C. gave him a tight smile before moving out into the hallway. The two of them rarely made mistakes, which was why she had wanted them there. She had hoped that the sight of an old friend and ally would calm Lelouch from whatever he was planning, but her first gamble hadn’t paid off. That had left her with what she knew that Suzaku and Kaguya could do, which was to force Lelouch to the afterlife, if necessary.

And she had no doubt that it would be necessary. Lelouch had spent so much time working to preserve his image of Britannia that it was no wonder that he had been folded into the nation’s ups and downs. When the nation was stable, there was nothing to worry about but, not that Britannia was torn, Lelouch was more dangerous than ever. It wasn’t only his great peace that he was trying to protect, C.C. was sure that his sanity was being ripped apart as well, if Lelouch had any sanity left.

Because of that, it was almost kinder to ask for Lelouch to be forced to move on. After centuries of wandering the earth on her own, C.C. was not about to condemn Lelouch to the same fate, especially if he was going to continue trying to remake Britannia.  If he did that, he was going to lose it all and C.C. didn’t want to be around when Lelouch realized that he had destroyed all he had been working for. C.C. was sure that nothing he had done thus far would compare to what Lelouch would do when his perfect world came crashing down around him.

* * *

Nunnally wasn’t sure how long she stared at the phone after Kaguya hung up, turning the words over in her mind. Some part of her still couldn’t believe the conversation that she’d had, the things that she had agreed to. It would be so easy for her to call Kaguya back and say that she had changed her mind, that she didn’t want to be dangled in front of the ghost like bait. Kaguya had told her multiple times in the explanation that she didn’t have to agree, that she only had to say the word that they would consider another plan.

Kaguya’s voice had been steady, but Nunnally couldn’t help but think of the expression she had seen on Kaguya’s face when they had gotten the news that there was no record of a coffin in Lelouch’s mausoleum.

Nunnally had spent the rest of the day switching between reading about what had happened in Britannia just after the Demon Emperor had died and how to deal with restless ghosts. She hadn’t found anything about the body in the former and everything in the latter had said that burning the remains was the one sure way to get rid of a restless ghost. Since they couldn’t find the body, Nunnally had no idea how Kaguya and Suzaku would handle Lelouch’s ghost save for the plan that she had been told.

It was so simple, so reasonable when it was explained. Lelouch had gone after her once, so it was likely that he would go after her again. While the ghost was in one place and distracted, the two of them would take care of him long before he had a chance to get to her. Or so they said. Nunnally had no reason not to believe them, but she couldn’t shake the sense of dread that was growing.

She had been at Lelouch’s mercy once, and it had been terrifying. The ghost hadn’t even touched her, but his chase down the hall was enough. It had taken her years to stop dreaming about the ghost coming after her every night.

Even knowing all of that, she had said yes anyway.

Nunnally shivered and reached out for the phone. Cancelling the whole thing was just a phone call away, but her hand stopped just over the phone. It shook in the air for a moment before Nunnally set her hand down on the table.

She jumped when the door to the suite opened. Nunnally twisted in her chair, relaxing when she saw Julius stumbling into the room.

Her brother didn’t look her way, Julius looking more asleep than awake. He made his way over to the couch before collapsing onto it.

Nunnally shook her head and backed her wheelchair away from the table. She maneuvered her way over to her brother, leaning on the arm of the couch as she looked down at him. “I didn’t hear you come in last night.”

The pause from Julius was enough of an answer, Nunnally smiling down at him. She reached out to push his bangs out of his face, not surprised when Julius rolled away from her.

Julius craned his neck to look at her, frowning for a moment before he sighed and reached up to rub his eyes. “That’s because I didn’t come in.”

“Holed yourself up in the library again? What’s it for this time?”

“Prime Minister candidates for the next election for _Political Pendragon_ , but I wasn’t working on it.” She thought she saw Julius wince, but the expression was gone quickly. “I spent the entire night looking up something for Suzaku.” He lifted his head to grin at her. “I found a pattern.”

“What kind of pattern?”

“Why Lelouch killed those four people.”

Nunnally felt a chill run down her spine. Kaguya had explained why Lelouch would want to kill her, maybe even using the exact words that Julius had told Suzaku earlier that day. She curled her fingers into the fabric of the arm rest, holding onto the arm tightly. “Y-you did?”

Julius hummed, rolling onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling before tipping his head back to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

Nunnally sighed and leaned her head against the back of the couch. She should have known better than to attempt to hide her unease. Even half asleep Julius would have found her out.

She heard him shift on the couch, purposefully not looking over at her brother until he had stopped moving. Even then, she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, sitting still under his scrutiny.

He seemed to give up a moment later, Julius rocking his head back against the back of the couch. “Is Schneizel running you off your feet?”

Nunnally shook her head. “He’s been more than generous about this, mostly because he’s been busy. Besides, he’s got enough aides without me.”

“Can he survive without you?”

“He’s done it before. I was just a replacement for Kanon after all.”

Julius snorted, not bothering to look at her. If anything, he sunk further into the couch. From her position, Nunnally wasn’t sure if he was still awake, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he fell asleep. She was sure that her brother would fall back into the habits he had gotten when he was looking after Marianne, staying up for odd hours and then sleeping whenever he could.

She bit her lip as Julius jolted awake, trying to hold back a laugh as her brother looked around. He groaned and leaned forward, rubbing his eyes. “I can’t wait to find our own place. It’s too noisy around here. I don’t understand how Euphy sleeps at night?”

“I doubt she does.”

Julius huffed. “I can understand that.” He rubbed at his eyes again before shaking his head. “So, if it’s not Schneizel, then what’s the matter?”

Nunnally was surprised by the abrupt change of subject. Then again, it wasn’t like Julius to let an idea go once he got a hold on it. She had hoped that he would just drift to sleep and she could work through the problem on her own. It would be easier without Julius hanging over her shoulder, because she knew what he would say. He would demand that she call the whole thing off, which would lead to an argument that Nunnally didn’t want to have.

Besides, it wasn’t just about her life, it was about everyone else that would follow. Nunnally didn’t think that Euphemia would use the Aries Villa for anything until the ghost was taken care of, but that wouldn’t stop teenagers from daring each other to go inside the old house. Nunnally didn’t want any other children ending up like Pollux.

She carefully let go of the arm of the couch, smoothing the fabric back into place. “I got a call from Kaguya. They need my help at the villa.”

That seemed to wake up Julius. He jolted upright, staring at her for a second before shaking his head. “No.”

“Julius-”

“They told us to stay away from that place, and for a good reason. You nearly died. _I_ nearly died.”

“I know, but this could be the thing that gets rid of him.”

“Not if it takes you with it.”

“They won’t let him hurt me. I trust them, don’t you?”

Julius crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the wall. It was a sure sign that she had won at least one part of the argument, not that it meant much. She could ignore him and just go along with Kaguya’s plan, but part of her wanted to convince Julius to agree to the plan.

The two of them had never fought much as children, and she hated that they were fighting. They only had each other now, and Nunnally wanted them to be on good terms, or as good terms as she could manage it.

She shook her head. “I have to do this. If we don’t take care of it, then who will?”

“Someone who won’t get killed!”

“And who would that be?”

Julius stared at her before shaking his head. “Someone who isn’t you.”

“Then it would be you.”

Julius’ mouth dropped open, Nunnally watching him work through the problem. She had no doubt that she would reach the same conclusion that she had. Kaguya had explained it the best she could, but Julius was the one who had figured out the pattern. She watched as her brother reached the same conclusion.

She expected the determined expression that crossed his face, but she didn’t expect him to nod. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

He went to stand up, Nunnally quick to reach out and grab his arm. A quick tug brought him back down to the couch, his attention completely on her again. She nodded and loosened her hold on his arm. “No you won’t, because _I_ want to do it. It makes more sense that way.”

“How?”

“Because we know he will come after me.” Nunnally attempted a smile, not sure if it convinced her brother. It didn’t feel convincing to her at all. She curled her fingers into her skirt, trying not to play with the fabric and give herself away. She looked away from Julius, preferring to stare at the wall instead of at her brother. “They know that this will work, and it’s better than their other plan.”

The silence that came from her brother was just as good as him asking a question. Nunnally sighed and stared down at her hands. “They set up traps before, but the ghost just tore through them. They were hoping that it would work and if not, they were going to do something about the body, but that’s gone too. I think this is our last shot.”

She thought she heard Julius mutter a curse, the sound lost as he stood up. Nunnally looked away from the wall, watching as Julius stormed towards the door. She pushed herself away from the couch, quickly crossing to the open center of the room. “Julius?”

“I’m going to get them out of there.” Julius started keying in the code for the door. “I don’t care if they’ve face worst ghosts, it’s too dangerous.”

Nunnally shook her head, almost surprised at his outburst. She had thought that Julius would stay away from the villa after what had happened to him. Meeting with Suzaku and Kaguya had been a favor for her, and she had thought that he would just leave it at that. Looking into the ghost’s killing patterns and being worried about the two of them was something that she hadn’t thought Julius would bother with. It was something outside his usual realm of understanding, and she thought that she would have kept as far away from them as possible.

She rolled herself forward, reaching out to tug on Julius’ arm before he could walk out the door. “I’m going over there tonight and nothing you can say will change that.”

It felt like Julius was going to pull away from her for a moment, but he slumped instead. He stayed that way until the door slid shut in front of him. The sound seemed to shake him out of whatever he was thinking, Nunnally hearing him sigh before he moved away from her. “You didn’t have to agree.”

“I had to. I want the two of them to be safe just as much as you do.” She offered him what she hoped was a confident smile. “Besides, I have something to settle with the ghost.”

That got a huff out of Julius, the sound almost like a laugh. He finally turned away from the door, giving her a long look. Nunnally was almost sure that he was going to try another tactic to convince her to stay behind, but he just shook his head. “You’re spending too much time with Schneizel.”

“And not with you?”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t smile. Nunnally didn’t expect him to, not when she was all but bullying her way out the door. Still, it was better than him trying to talk her out of it.

She bit her lip, watching Lelouch for a moment before moving around him. She reached for her coat which she had left by the door when she had come in after visiting the cemetery. Nunnally pulled it into her lap, glancing over her shoulder at where her brother was still staring at the floor.

It was almost too easy compared to all the other things that they had argued about; Julius was just staring at the floor and letting her leave without another salvo. Usually he would continue to argue and rage even when they had stopped talking to each other. Her brother could never take losing with easy grace. Maybe she had managed to shock him into silence, but Nunnally doubted it.

She reached up to key the code into the door, watching as Julius jumped at the sound. She sighed and wheeled her way out of the room, turning slightly so she could see him.

Nunnally opened her mouth to say something to her brother, but the words stuck in her throat. She couldn’t think of anything to say, even when there was a chance that it might be her last time they saw each other. The ghost might get the chance to finish off what it had started fifteen years ago, not that she doubted Kaguya and Suzaku’s skill. Still, she had to say something or Julius would think that she was angry at him until the end. That would be another person gone from Julius’ life after he had argued with them.

She cleared her throat and tried again, the words dying when she saw that Julius was pulling on his coat as well. Julius slipped through the door before it shut, tugging his coat into place. He glanced over at her, shaking his head at the expression on her face. “I’m coming with you.”

“You can’t. Kaguya said that it should only be me.”

Julius nodded, although Nunnally was sure that he wasn’t really paying attention to what she said. He was probably already working out his own plan, probably to convince Kaguya and Suzaku to let him stay.

She frowned and reached out for him, only to have Julius step out of her reach. Her brother shook his head and walked around behind her, beginning to push her down the hall. Nunnally reached back, intending to pry his fingers away from her wheelchair, but Julius just moved his hand away. Their progress down the hall slowed before Julius adjusted again, her brother leaning forward as they continued down the hall.

“I’m not going to stay. I just want to make sure that they have everything under control.”

Nunnally sighed and leaned back in the chair. It was just the measure that she would have suggested if she wasn’t in a hurry. It was a reasonable thing, but she was sure that Julius would still try to talk to Suzaku and Kaguya. Still, she couldn’t just send him back, not when some part of her wanted him to stay close.

The trip to the Aries Villa wouldn’t take too long, especially since they could take the private road to the house. It wasn’t long, but it was more than enough time for her to talk herself out of acting as bait. With Julius there she could at least hold out by being stubborn, which would be enough to keep her calm until it was too late to back out.

She closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths before opening her eyes again. For the first time since she and Kaguya had discovered that Lelouch vi Britannia’s body was missing, she was calm; although even that could just be because of fear.

She reached back to touch Julius’ hand, comforting herself with the familiar feeling of having her brother close by. She would have to hold onto that feeling of safety and security, because Nunnally was sure that it would be a long night.


	8. Chapter Seven: Springing the Trap

“I must become a borrower of the night  
For a dark hour or twain.”   
– _Macbeth_ , William Shakespeare

* * *

Julius paced in the driveway outside of the Aries Villa, letting his breath hiss out between his teeth. He threw a quick glance at the building before turning away again, hating the shiver that ran down his spine.

His sister could go into the Aries Villa without any signs of fear, and she had been paralyzed in the building. Nunnally was putting herself in danger and he couldn’t even go into the old house. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at the place.

He pivoted on his heel, making another pass up the ending loop of the driveway. Unable to bring himself to look at the house, he glanced over to where Jeremiah was standing with the car.

The man was out of the car and staring down the lane, Julius seeing his fingers twitch. Julius was sure that Jeremiah was thinking back to the old days when he had been the bodyguard of Senator Charles Kingsley and his wife, back when he had been a young man. Julius had seen Jeremiah’s prowess when he had been younger and Jeremiah had been more than just an odd job man around the house. The man had amused both him and Nunnally by reenacting parts of the Arthurian legends that Marianne had read to them. Julius was sure that Lancelot had never used throwing knives, but it had entertained them when they were younger. Jeremiah was probably wishing that he was back on bodyguard duty, anything to help keep Marianne’s children from harm.

Julius shared the same sentiment. He had promised his mother that he would never let anything happen to Nunnally once when she had been born, once when they had been sitting in the hospital with her and again when Marianne had been dying. And yet, he was letting his sister run headlong into danger because he hadn’t been able to convince her otherwise.

He raked a hand through his hair, turning again. He risked a glance towards the porch of the house, coming to an abrupt stop when he saw Suzaku standing there.

Julius stared at Suzaku for a moment before storming over. He didn’t climb up onto the porch, but he did grab onto the wrought iron bars. “What are you doing out here? You should be with Nunnally.”

“Kaguya is going over everything with her.”

“So who’s watching the ghost?”

“Lucille.” Suzaku’s face contorted in an expression that Julius couldn’t read, but it was gone quickly. The man stepped down from the porch, coming to stand beside him on the front path. Suzaku stared at him for a moment before tipping his head to the side. “I needed some air.”

The invitation was clear, but Suzaku still waiting for him to let go of the bar before starting to walk away. Julius hesitated for a moment before following, hunching his shoulders as he turned his back to the house.

If Suzaku noticed, he didn’t say anything. The man just kept walking forward, heading away from the tree lined drive and towards the open fields that surrounded the villa. Julius kept a few steps behind him as they stepped into the tall grass. He watched Suzaku’s shoulders, coming to a stop behind him when Suzaku slowed down.

Suzaku kept walking a few steps more before he stopped as well, his head tipped up towards the sky. Suzaku stayed that way for a long while, his shoulders the only things that moved when he let out a long sigh.

Julius swayed in place, torn between his desire to head back to the house and to talk with Suzaku. Surely as the expert Suzaku would have something that would help calm him. If not, then Julius was tempted to storm inside and drag Nunnally out of the villa, ghost or no ghost. It wouldn’t take the four of them too long to come up with a new plan, not between Kaguya and Suzaku’s experience and Julius and Nunnally’s knowledge of the area. There had to be something that didn’t involve him losing the only member of his family left to him.

“She’s going to be fine, Julius.” He started at the sound of his name, surprised to see Suzaku looking back at him. The man smiled and took a step forward, looking like he was going to reach out only to pull his hand back. “We’re not going to let anything happen to her.”

“Can you promise me that?”

Julius didn’t expect the pause that came after, his heart beating faster the long Suzaku just stared at him. He gave Suzaku an exasperated look before turning around. “No.”

“Julius.”

He flinched when Suzaku grabbed his wrist, trying to jerk his hand away even as Suzaku held him still. When he couldn’t pull away, Julius turned back around, trying to pull Suzaku’s fingers away from him. “I won’t let this happen.”

“Not even when Nunnally agreed?”

“Not unless you can promise that she’ll be perfectly safe.”

“I can’t.” Suzaku let go of his wrist, Julius stumbling a few steps forward before he caught himself. Suzaku remained where he was, his hand held out in front of him. “But I can promise that I will do everything I can to keep her unharmed. That’s all I can promise.”

“That’s not enough.”

“It’s all I have. Please, Julius, trust me.”

The answer should have been simple, but the immediate denial stuck in his throat. He had only known Suzaku and his cousin for a handful of days and, professional or not, that wasn’t enough for him to just trust them with the safety of his sister. But he did. It made no logical sense, which was the most frustrating thing to him. All it had taken from Suzaku was a suggestion, and he had followed him away from the house and Nunnally. A request and he was ready to shake Suzaku’s hand and, possibly, give his sister up for dead. The instinctive trust made no sense, but Julius couldn’t just deny it.

He made a frustrated noise and turned away, pacing a path through the tall grass. What he wanted was a world that made sense again, just him and Nunnally making their way in the world. A world without ghosts or people who just appeared in his life and started making their own space there. He had no time for either of those things between his job and caring for his sister.

On the other hand, there was no logical way to deny what had happened. Julius reached up and absently rubbing his throat, almost able to feel the cold fingers of the Demon Emperor closing around it again. The ghost had been a part of his life for fifteen years and no amount of denying that would give Nunnally the use of her legs back.

What he could rage about was the sudden trust that he felt about Suzaku, not that it would get him anywhere. He was trapped with no way to talk or fight his way out, which made it all worse.

He stopped, glancing back at the villa before looking at Suzaku, expecting the man to have turned back to whatever he had come out of the mansion to escape. Instead, Suzaku was still waiting on him, his hand still out. Julius shook his head slowly, not quite sure if he was denying Suzaku or just expressing his confusion.

Suzaku didn’t seem too perturbed, he just had the same faint smile on his face. “Listen, I understand, I do. My mother did this for years and it’s horrible to be the one left behind.”

“What did you do?”

“I kept myself busy. There’s not much else you can do.”

Julius huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re not helping.”

Suzaku shrugged. “It’s the best I can do, other than promise that Nunnally will make it out of here alive. That’s all I have.”

“Nunnally is all I have.” Julius watched Suzaku carefully as he reached out his hand. He brushed his fingers against Suzaku’s hesitant to actually take the man’s hand and shake. He pulled back before he could, not looking away from Suzaku. “I’m trusting you with a lot here.”

Suzaku nodded solemnly. “I’ll take care of her.”

His gaze wavered, Julius sure that he was looking back at the villa. He wasn’t sure what Suzaku was looking at, but it probably had something to do with the house. Julius was tempted to turn and see if the ghost was looking at them, but he didn’t dare. It was easier to look at Suzaku than face what may be behind him.

He swallowed and focused on Suzaku, giving him his best attempt at a glare when Suzaku’s attention turned back to him. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“I promise that I won’t leave her side until you come back tomorrow.” Julius shook his head, about to try and talk his way out of it, but Suzaku gave a firm shake of his head. “You’re not staying. You’ll be safer far away from this house.”

Julius couldn’t deny the truth in that, but he still frowned. “I’d rather stay here. I can’t ask Nunnally to do this if I can’t do the same.”

He expected some kind of comment on his jumpiness around the villa, something that would show that Suzaku was going to talk him down. Instead, he got a soft smile and a slow shake of Suzaku’s head. “You’ll confuse the trap. The ghost attacked both you and your sister.”

“So having me there might help.”

Suzaku shook his head again. “It would be harder to keep the two of you safe. Kaguya and I can focus on Nunnally’s safety if it’s only her. Anything else would be breaking my promise to you.”

Julius sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. He turned to face the villa, staring defiantly at it. He hated the part of him that would glad that he had a way out. He had been scared fifteen years before, an old fear of hospitals from when after his father had died, but he had still stayed by Nunnally’s bedside. He could do it again for her sake. He took a deep breath and met Suzaku’s gaze, his resolve crumbling at the last moment. It was one thing to stay for Nunnally, but it was another to stay for the sake of his own ego and hurt his sister. Suzaku was right and it hurt to admit it.

He dropped his gaze to the knee high grass. “I’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

“That’s fine.” Suzaku laughed, Julius feeling a shiver run down his spine at the sound. His gaze dropped to where Suzaku’s hand dangled by his side. He could remember the brief touch of their fingers and was surprised by how much he wanted the contact again.

He jerked his gaze away when Suzaku looked his way. Julius wasn’t sure if Suzaku could read his expression, but it didn’t look like the man could. If anything, Suzaku looked more relaxed. He stretched his arms over his head, presenting Julius with his back as he turned to look at the fields.

Julius stepped up beside Suzaku, looking out at the fields. Now that he knew that there was no way to be of use, he had to deal with the long hours until the morning. He was sure that he wouldn’t get a wink of sleep, he would be worrying too much about Nunnally. The alternatives weren’t too much better. Julius glanced at Suzaku out of the corner of his eye, quickly looking away. Thinking about Suzaku wouldn’t be a better alternative, but not by much.

He turned his attention back to the fields, trying to find the thing that had drawn Suzaku to the place. The waving grass had no answers, Julius risking another glance at Suzaku. “It reminds you of home, right? Of the fields of sunflowers?”

Julius was sure that it was the wrong thing to say by the way that Suzaku tensed. Suzaku stared out at the field for a moment before speaking quietly. “How did you know?”

He glanced at Suzaku helplessly. “You told me about them.”

It wasn’t the truth and it wasn’t a good lie either, he could see that on Suzaku’s face. He tried for a shrug, but it was hard to pretend confidence when he was wondering him the same thing. To the best of his memory, they had never talked about Suzaku’s home, but he knew what it looked like. Julius was sure that, if he closed his eyes, he could see the Kururugi Shrine from where it was perched on the hill.

He shivered and looked down at the grass, bending down to run his fingers through it. He didn’t know what possessed him to speak again, but it was hard to hold the words back. “It must have been beautiful in the summer.”

“Yeah…”

Julius wasn’t sure if Suzaku was being wary or wistful, he didn’t want to ask. Some part of him just wanted to keep Suzaku out of the villa. It would be safer, but nothing would get done.

He muffled a yawn, surprised when Suzaku turned his attention back. The soft smile was back on his face, Julius unable to look too long at it without an intense feeling of longing. Suzaku stepped closer to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Have you slept?”

Julius settled for a vague noise in response. He had caught a nap after he had gone over the important information with Suzaku instead of working on his article. There was a chance that he would actually sleep because of his exhaustion, or maybe he would find a way to stay up longer. The latter seemed more likely, which meant that he would shuffle through another day. He would sleep once the ghost was gone.

Suzaku turned to face the like the thought of the ghost had summoned him. Julius turned too, watching the villa carefully. He couldn’t see anything, which made it worse. He found himself taking a step closer to Suzaku, hovering close as the man stared at the house.

Suzaku shook his head a moment later, looking back at him. “I’d better get going.”

Julius nodded curtly, stepping away from Suzaku. He started back towards the driveway, pausing to wait for Suzaku to catch up.

It didn’t take the man long, Suzaku falling into step beside him. There was silence between them, Julius sure that it could be filled, but it felt wrong to continue to pester Suzaku about Nunnally. He did trust Suzaku, it was just the walking away that was hard. He swallowed and fixed his gaze on where Jeremiah was still waiting by the car. His gaze strayed to the front porch for a moment before he jerked it away.

“Be careful.” The words surprised him, Julius biting his lip to keep from saying anything else.

Suzaku didn’t seem to notice. In fact, he seemed to be flattered. “I will.” He went to walk away, pausing a moment. Suzaku shifted in place for a moment before he turned back. “I’ll have something for you when you come back.”

Julius raised an eyebrow. “Really now?”

“I found something interesting. You might be able to use it better than I ever will.”

“And if I can’t?”

Suzaku shrugged. “You’re closer to the royal family than I am.”

Julius was intrigued by the mention. There were plenty of old, forgotten things that had been stored there. He wasn’t surprised that Suzaku had found something. It was the fact that Suzaku had decided that it was worth mentioning to him that was interesting. He was tempted to ask what it was, but the smile that Suzaku gave him was almost teasing. Julius swallowed and put a bit of distance between him and Suzaku.

It was just another of the weird things that Julius was coming to associate with the investigation of the villa. He was figuring out strange things about people that he didn’t know and he found himself wanting to spend more time at the villa despite everything. Then again, the latter was probably because of Suzaku. There was a lot that he could blame on Suzaku, but the exact reasons behind it weren’t something he wanted to think about. If all went well then Suzaku would be gone within a few days so it was stupid to be considering things that would never happen. There were other things to do, like work on his articles and finding a place to live outside of the palace.

He sighed as Suzaku turned away, glad that the smile wasn’t trained on him anymore. Julius sighed and slipped into the car, purposefully looking ahead instead of back at Suzaku.

Jeremiah slid into the car, the man glancing up at him through the rearview mirror. “Julius?”

He took a deep breath. “Back to the palace. They assured me that Nunnally will be fine.”

Jeremiah grumbled, but started the car. Julius let the man complain, he didn’t have it in him to explain why he was leaving his sister behind. Jeremiah was just as protective of Nunnally as he was and he was just as likely to turn back and grab her regardless of the plan.

He curled his fingers into the seatbelt, twisting it as he fought the urge to look back. It only took him a few moments before he gave up, Julius twisting in his seat to look at the front porch.

To his surprise, Suzaku was still standing on the porch. He was too far away to see if Suzaku was still smiling. He raised his hand to wave, finding himself smiling when Suzaku waved back.

That seemed to be the thing that Suzaku had been waiting for. Suzaku waved back for a bit before turning and walking back into the house. Kaguya must have called him because Suzaku’s head lifted as he looked up towards the second floor. He walked into the house, Julius shaking his head at Suzaku.

His amusement disappeared when another figure appeared on the porch. Julius felt his breath catch in his throat as the figure reach out for Suzaku, its fingers just missing the back of Suzaku’s head. It didn’t matter that figure had missed, the tender motion was still clear. Julius swallowed, shrinking back when the figure looked back at him. He quailed in the face of the red eyes. The last time he had seen them, the Demon Emperor had been reaching out to strangle him.

Julius reached up to his neck, his whole body going cold when the ghost gave him a mocking wave before turning and fading away as it walked into the house.

* * *

Nunnally took a deep breath and settled herself against the pillows. She scanned the room she was in, picking out the clear paths to the door. It was easier with most of the furniture gone, the only things left in the room were the bed and the nightstand. Her wheelchair was carefully positioned by the bed, closer to the head than she would normally put it. She had practiced slipping in and out of the chair until she was sure that she could hop out and get away as fast as humanly possible. Kaguya had said that all she would have to do was get mobile and out of the way and the she and Suzaku of them would take care of the rest.

She curled her fingers more tightly around her phone, which was hidden under the covers. Kaguya’s number was on speed dial, in case the worst happened. She let her breath out slowly, trying to get comfortable.

There had been a lot of instructions, but nothing that she couldn’t handle. All she had to do was pretend to sleep. Kaguya had assured her that actually falling asleep was alright; she, Suzaku and Lucille would be on the alert. Nunnally didn’t think that she would be able to sleep, not when she was in the same room she had seen the ghost appear in fifteen years ago. According to Kaguya, it was the room that Lelouch was most spotted in, considering that it had been his room.

Nunnally’s gaze jumped to the door, halfway expecting to see the same apparition in white that had appeared before. Then again, she couldn’t imagine how a ghost would be able to get past Suzaku and Kaguya.

Her fingers twitched around her phone, Nunnally trying to resist the urge to call up someone just to hear another human voice. Instead, she went over where everyone was.

Suzaku was the closest, directly out in the hall. Kaguya was around the corner, most of her focus on the rest of the house to try and track the ghost’s movements. Lucille was drifting through the house, pretending that everything was the same. The housekeeper had been in before to help settle her in. The woman had kept giving her strange looks, probably because no one in their right mind would agree to be bait like she had, but there was no alternative.

She relaxed her fingers around her phone, looking away from the door. She didn’t know how long she would have to wait, but there was no point in psyching herself out. She needed to be clearheaded and ready to move when Lelouch _did_ show up.

Nunnally rubbed the fingers of her other hand against the covers. She didn’t understand half of what Kaguya had said, but she had a grasp of the basics.

Kaguya and Suzaku would close in on Lelouch as soon as he came into the room. Kaguya had mentioned some sort of ritual that she hadn’t been familiar with. There had been a mention of talking with the ghost, although that come with a caveat that it would only work if the ghost didn’t fight. What the two of them wanted to get from the ghost she didn’t know. All she cared about was the fact that Lelouch would be sent peaceably to the other side. Kaguya had explained to her what would happen if they couldn’t sound the ghost out. There were talismans, two of which were in her bag on her wheelchair. When Kaguya told her, she would place them on the wall opposite the door and over the bed. She was vague on why, but she was sure that it would work.

All it would take was one more night in the Aries Villa. That was a fair price for getting rid of the ghost of the Demon Emperor.

Nunnally tipped her head back, staring at the ceiling of the room. She couldn’t imagine the Aries Villa without the ghost, but it had to be for the best. The old building could finally be used instead of avoided. She knew that Euphemia had almost given it to them as part of their housing alternatives, not that she would have taken it. The villa was too grand for two people. Hollis House had been too large for her, her brother and her mother. Nunnally was more than willing to downsize. The Kingsleys might have come from the royal family but they were no longer considered part of it. A small townhouse would be just fine for her, but she could see the appeal to the old place. It had a certain kind of charm and elegance.

She pushed her shoulders against the pillows, shutting her eyes. As soon as this was over she would talk to Euphemia about bringing the villa back up to its old grandeur. That would be something to see.

Nunnally smiled to herself, letting her mind drift from the villa to the other things she associated with the place; great balls and the days when Britannia had still been an empire.

She started when she tipped over to the side, Nunnally catching herself before she fell partially out of the bed. Nunnally glanced around the room, taking a moment to glance at her cell phone. She had lost two hours, which could only mean that she had managed to sleep. Nunnally laughed at herself before pressing a hand to her mouth. She glanced around the room, expecting the ghost to be waiting for her.

The room was still empty, the familiar shape of her wheelchair calming her racing heart. Everything was still as it was, which meant that she hadn’t messed up.

She lowered her hand, taking a deep breath as she settled. She curled her fingers around the side of her phone, contemplating checking the status of the rest of the team when she heard something out in the hallway.

Nunnally shifted closer to the edge of the bed. She reached out for her wheelchair, hesitating as she listened. It was hard to hear what was going on outside the door and Nunnally didn’t think she could risk moving over to the door, not when it could be Kaguya and Suzaku checking in on each other. She bit her lip before leaning back on the pillows.

She was about to relax her guard and let her mind drift again when the noises outside the door picked up. Nunnally frowned and sat up, scooting herself slowly to the other side of the bed. She threw a worried glance back at her wheelchair. It was dangerous to move too far away, she wouldn’t be able to get away quickly but she couldn’t just sit in ignorance. It didn’t matter if it was Kaguya and Suzaku talking, she just wanted to make sure she knew who was outside the door.

There was a pause in the conversation, Nunnally holding her breath. She didn’t think she had made much noise, but it felt like they had heard her. Nunnally bit her lip, waiting through the pause that seemed to last forever. She let out the breath she had been holding when she heard someone sigh outside.

“You shouldn’t be out here.”

“No one’s here.”

Nunnally startled at the sound of Suzaku’s voice. What he was saying made no sense because Kaguya was just down the hall. She shifted forward, listening hard as the other person spoke.

“It doesn’t matter, someone could come by.”

The second voice wasn’t Kaguya’s, Nunnally sure that the second person was a man. She frowned and leaned out over the side of the bed, closing her eyes as she tried to hear the quiet conversation. She couldn’t figure out who the second man was. If she didn’t know better she would believe that it was Julius save for the fact that he had been sent back to the palace. Nunnally was sure that he wouldn’t have come back. Everything that Kaguya had told her hinged on the fact that the ghost would have to come after her alone.

Outside she heard Suzaku laugh, the sound fonder than she expected. “They wouldn’t dare, not with you around. Your reign of terror had worked, maybe a little too well.”

“That’s not the point.”

“So what you do expect me to do, sit around all day?”

“You’re supposed to be dead.”

Nunnally shook her head, confused by the conversation. None of it made sense, especially with what Suzaku was saying. She closed her fingers around the phone, tempted to call Kaguya. There was every chance that Suzaku was talking to himself, but that wouldn’t explain the second distinct voice and the nervous feeling in her stomach. In her current situation she trusted her gut more than logic. Nunnally shivered and pulled her phone out from under her covers. She moved to press the button that would call Kaguya, but she froze when the conversation picked up again.

“I’m not your kept man.”

“No. If anything that’s C.C. But don’t tell her that, she might take it as encouragement.”

“I might. You need someone to keep you in line.”

“I have advisors for that.”

“You never listen to them.”

The second voice laughed. “They don’t know the plan. Zero Requiem matters more.” Suzaku made a sound of disagreement. “It will fix everything, just like I promised. Euphy will be a distant memory.”

Suzaku sighed, but the second voice spoke up before he could. “I thought you were glad to get rid of me.”

“You really think that?”

“You spent the last year telling me that.”

“You-”

“‘You don’t deserve to exist’ were your exact words, if I remember correctly.”

“You _ass_.”

Nunnally jumped as she heard someone get shoved against the wall. She scooted back into the center of the bed. The move didn’t matter because the two of them were so close to the room.

She could hear the two of them breathing heavily, Nunnally shifting closer to the wall as Suzaku spoke in a low voice. “You think I really believe that? You think I _want_ that?”

“You did then.”

Suzaku made a frustrated noise, Nunnally expecting the conversation to keep going. Instead there was silence, Nunnally freezing at the sudden stop. She reached back in the bed, staring at the wall. There was a chance that she was just listening to a repeat of conversation that had happened a hundred years ago. But she didn’t know why Suzaku would be a part of it, or why he would let Lelouch’s ghost stand in front of the door without triggering the trap.

She shook her head and looked down at her phone, freezing at the soft moan from the other side of the wall. The sound repeated itself, Nunnally blushing at the hint at what was probably happening on the other side of the wall. She shook her head and pressed the number for Kaguya. She didn’t understand what was going on, but she knew that some part of the trap worked. They had to spring it before they lost their best chance.

The phone rang twice, Nunnally pressing it against her ear as she waited for a response. There was a click as it connected, Nunnally opening her mouth to speak when a shout from the hallway interrupted her.

“Suzaku!” Kaguya’s shout echoed from the hall and Nunnally’s phone.

She turned her head to look at the wall, her phone dropping into her lap at the thump of a body hitting the floor. There was a second thump, Nunnally assuming that it was Kaguya dropping to the floor beside him.

“Suzaku, what happened?”

Nunnally swallowed and picked up the phone. “Kaguya?”

“Suzaku’s down.”

“I’m alright.” Suzaku’s reply was faint and unsteady.

Nunnally agreed with Kaguya’s snort of disgust. “Stay here. How are you, Nunnally?”

“I’m alright. It’s been quiet.” She shifted in place, trying to figure out how to tell Kaguya about the conversation she had overheard. Once things calmed down she would explain and they might be able to pick out some meaning.

It was tempting to call her brother and find out what he had to say. Julius wasn’t the foremost authority, but he was the best that they had considering the hour. He could at least shine some light on the situation.

She lowered the phone into her lap, listening to the cousins converse in Japanese. Nunnally was sure that Kaguya was quizzing Suzaku on the specifics. The exact words were beyond her, but the sound of other human beings talking was better than nothing. Nunnally closed her eyes and took slow, deep breaths to calm herself further, only opening her eyes when she heard the door open.

She turned towards the door to the hallway, frowning when she saw that it was closed. Over the phone, she could still hear the steady sound of Kaguya and Suzaku talking. Nunnally shifted, her eyes widening when she saw that a secret door in the room had opened. A horribly familiar chill settled in her bones, Nunnally clutching as her phone as she stared into the dark doorway.

The ghost emerged slowly from the room, tugging at his robes as he moved. Nunnally stared at the lurid bloodstain on the front of the ghost’s white robes. For a moment, it looked like he was still bleeding out, Nunnally shivering as she lifted her phone up.

“Kaguya.” The two stopped talking at the same time as the ghost turned his head. Nunnally shook under his gaze. “Kaguya, he’s here with me.”

“We’re coming.”

“He’s between me and the door.” Nunnally wasn’t sure that Kaguya heard her, but she felt like she needed to keep talking. The ghost seemed to be entranced by her, but Nunnally couldn’t stand the focus. “I’m moving…”

She scooted towards her wheelchair, sucking in a quick breath when the ghost moved over to the side of the bed. Nunnally flinched as the ghost reached for her, surprised when Lelouch jerked his hand back.

“Nunnally…” He didn’t get a chance to say anything else, the ghost jerking away when the door was yanked open. Nunnally let out a sigh of relief when Kaguya and Suzaku charged in. The ghost retreated at the sight of them, Nunnally noting that his gaze lingered on Suzaku. She thought she saw a look of disappointment on Lelouch’s face before the ghost muttered a faint, “No,” and then he was gone.

Kaguya stumbled forward a few steps before coming to a stop. She turned in place and cursed, pivoting to look at her cousin. “Suzaku?”

“He’s around.” Suzaku frowned. “He’s more here than before. If we keep moving, we should be able to find him.”

“I’ll help.” Nunnally carefully transferred herself back to her wheelchair. She gave Suzaku a stern look when he seemed surprised by her announcement. “I’m here already, and he already came for me. He’ll come again.”

“Are you sure?” Nunnally answered Suzaku’s question with a nod. Suzaku sighed and looked over at his cousin.

Nunnally was relieved that Kaguya shrugged. “We need her help. The only other one here that he’s come for is you.”

“Then we split up. You stay with Nunnally and cover the top floor.”

Kaguya crossed her arms over her chest. “And what will you do?”

Suzaku stopped partially out of the door, throwing a look over his shoulder. “I’ll be covering the ground floor with Lucille. Between Nunnally and me, he might just show himself again.”

Suzaku grinned at them before stepping out into the hall. Nunnally leaned forward in her chair, catching sight of him as he jogged down the stairs. She sighed and looked back at Kaguya, watching as the woman fiddled with something in her pocket. Nunnally’s gaze slid back to the secret door, expecting the ghost to appear again. She shivered and looked away. “Will he be alright?”

“As long as he’s with Lucille.” Kaguya sighed and pulled her hand out of her pocket. “I don’t trust him on his own, not with this ghost.”

Nunnally nodded. “They were talking earlier, like they knew each other.” She felt safe enough avoiding the suspicious sounds that followed. If Kaguya had found Suzaku, she had probably seen what had been going on. Nunnally shook her head, reaching down to check if the slips of paper were still in her bag. “What they were talking about didn’t make sense though. It was all about a plan and Suzaku being dead.”

She expected Kaguya to look surprised, but the woman just sighed and shook her head. “There’s something someone’s not telling us, and it’s hindered us this entire time. When I find out who’s behind this…” Kaguya huffed and turned her head. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Where do we start?”

“By focusing on the upstairs.” Kaguya came around the wheelchair, standing out the way as Nunnally maneuvered away from the bed. She stuck close as Nunnally moved into the center of the room. She brushed against the chair as she moved around it, Kaguya going ahead to peer out into the hall.

Nunnally hung back until Kaguya waved her forward. Nunnally pushed herself to the door, peeking out into the hallway. It was empty, but that seemed more frightening than seeing the ghost. At least she could know where the ghost was in that situation. She swallowed and glanced over at Kaguya. “What’s the plan?”

“We check all of the rooms. The ghost might hide for a bit, but I think he’ll come back for you.”

Nunnally swallowed, but nodded. Seeing the ghost a second time had just strengthened her resolve to make sure it was gone. It didn’t matter how frightened she was, not when what she was doing was important. The world had suffered under Lelouch for long enough, it was time to free it from him, even if it was just a small corner of the world.

She rolled out into the hallway, glancing both ways before staring down the hall. Nunnally heard Kaguya follow after her, taking a moment to look back over at her. The sight of the other woman was enough to settle her. Nunnally turned her attention back to the hallway, watching for the tell-tale flicker of a white robe.

* * *

Suzaku peeked into the dining room, frowning when Lucille wasn’t there. The woman had said she would be sticking close and taking care of the usual household jobs. Suzaku had assumed that she would at least give them some warning about the ghost if he had appeared. After all, she was somehow connected to the ghost through her curse, but she was nowhere to be found. He gritted his teeth and turned on his heel.

He didn’t have the time to be searching for her, not when the ghost had disappeared before they could spring the trap. The ghost had been right in front of him and he hadn’t done anything. Suzaku remembered talking, although he hadn’t been sure about what. All he could remember was a deep feeling of loss and regret, but he couldn’t figure out where it had come from. All he knew was that he had come back to himself on the floor with Kaguya looking concerned.

Suzaku rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, turning around to look at the entrance hall. He was sure that Kaguya and Nunnally had already moved off, and he was worried about them. If he hadn’t been able to do anything in the face of the ghost, then he couldn’t imagine what they could do. Suzaku wasn’t sure if it had been the ghost doing something special or his own exhaustion from the day. Then again, it could have been something completely different, but he couldn’t figure out what it could be. Nothing about the ghost made sense.

He ran a hand through his hair, turning in place as he looked around the ground floor. He would keep looking for Lucille while searching for the ghost. Suzaku was sure that the ghost would prefer Nunnally, but his gut feeling said that the ghost would come after him, although he couldn’t understand why. Aside from his name, he had no association with Lelouch or Britannia.

It was almost enough for him to regret sending Julius away. He couldn’t bring himself to trust Lucille, she had kept too much from them. Besides, Julius was more knowledgeable about the villa than a few days of research would get him. It would be nice to have someone to talk to, and an extra pair of eyes to search with him.

He smiled at the thought, turning to look down the hallway by the dining room. The smile dropped from his face when he saw the figure in white at the end of the hall. Suzaku frowned as the ghost turned to look at him, taking a step forward at a slight gesture from the ghost. He took another step forward before he stopped himself, surprised by the urge to keep walking. He shook his head and took a few steps back.

He had heard of ghosts with power over the living, but he hadn’t ever seen it in action. Suzaku wasn’t even sure how the ghost had power over him, not unless he was more out of it than he thought. Jet lag always did strange things to his senses. It might have been enough to open him to the ghost, that and the two of them sleeping in the house could have had something to do with it.

The ghost frowned the longer he stayed away. His hand dropped, the ghost stared at him before turning on his heel and walking away.

Suzaku stayed where he was for a moment, hoping that the ghost’s pull wouldn’t drag him along. He sighed when he didn’t feel the strange compulsion to follow. So it wasn’t a complete hold on him, which was good enough for him to keep going. Suzaku took off at a run, sprinting down the corridor. He ignored the other doors in the hallway, focused on the feeling of the ghost just ahead of him.

Lelouch’s ghost felt like focus and determination something that he usually didn’t associate with ghosts. The single mindedness was familiar, but Suzaku couldn’t tell what it was directed towards. But whatever it was had to be soon if the sparks of excitement that he felt through the ghost’s aura were any hint of what could happen.

He sprinted faster, catching a glimpse of the ghost as he turned the corner. He stumbled around the turn, catching himself on an empty pedestal where a suit of armor had once stood. Suzaku stumbled back into a run, seeing the ghost flicker out of sight in the middle of the next hallway. He cursed but didn’t slow down. He could still feel the ghost somewhere in front of him, tormenting him.

Suzaku glanced around, hoping to find something that would help him trap the ghost. Without anything prepared he would have to make something up on the go. It would have been better if he had a second person, but Lucille was nowhere to be seen. He would just have to corner the ghost, maybe by tricking the ghost into believing that he was still able to be controlled. That would be enough to get close and then Suzaku could see if the ghost could be convinced to move on. With the sense of purpose that he felt there was a good chance that helping Lelouch move on would be as simple as completing that task.

He walked to the end of the hall, looking around. There was no sign of the ghost, but Suzaku could still sense him somewhere in the house. If it didn’t appear for him, then it would appear for Kaguya and Nunnally.

He swayed in place for a moment before jogging over Lucille’s room. The door was shut but that didn’t stop him from knocking. Lucille had said that she would be close, but he had already crossed half of the house and he hadn’t seen her. Suzaku didn’t think that she would be in her room, but it wouldn’t hurt to look.

When she didn’t answer, he tried the door. To his surprise it opened, Suzaku staring at the door before looking into the room. He sighed when he saw that the room was empty. He hadn’t expected anything else, but he had hoped for the best. He gave the bed and the stuffed animal on it one last look before shutting the door.

He sighed and leaned against the door. Without backup or a sighting of the ghost he would have to go back around and look at each of the rooms individually. Suzaku turned his head to look back down the hall. He might as well start on the side that he was already on, it was the last place he had seen the ghost heading.

Suzaku pushed away from the door, about to start down the hall when he heard a door ahead of him shut. Suzaku tipped his head to the side, trying to figure out where it had come from. It had sounded like one of the heavier doors, which left the entrance hall, dining room, library and great hall. Considering he could see the doors of the great hall and library and he was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to hear the doors from the dining room, which just left the front doors. But that didn’t explain who would be coming to the villa this time of night. There was no one that he could think of, not unless they had been leaving.

He took a slow step forward, jumping when whoever had entered the house called out. “Suzaku? Kaguya?”

Suzaku felt cold rush down his spin at the familiar voice. “Julius?”

“Suzaku?”

He heard footsteps as Julius walked towards him. Suzaku rushed forward to meet him halfway, his heart pounding.

He had watched Julius drive away, he had explained why it wasn’t safe for the man in the villa. No matter how much he had wished for it, he hadn’t actually wanted Julius to come into the villa and put himself in danger.

Suzaku huffed when Julius stepped into the hallway, a bit confused by Julius’ change of clothes, but he pushed the thought away. It was more important to get Julius out of the villa before he was killed.

He shook his head as Julius moved closer, relieved when Julius stopped by the library doors, the man looking confused. Suzaku pointed to the front hall. “Get out.”

“But I-”

“You promised to give me until morning.”

Julius stared at him like he didn’t understand before he shrugged. “I thought about it, but you’re going to need help.”

“No. I need you to get out of here more than that.” Suzaku took a step forward. “Please, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Julius seemed taken aback by that. He stared at Suzaku for a moment before looking away with a blush. Suzaku felt himself blush as well, but he ignored it. Keeping Julius alive was more important than anything else.

“Suzaku, I-”

Julius never got a chance to finish, the library doors flying open. The two of them jumped back, Suzaku reaching for something that would stop the ghost, even it was temporary. He didn’t have the time to pull anything out before Julius was yanked inside of the library, the doors slamming shut behind him.

“No!” Suzaku rushed forward, scrambling at the doors. They resisted him, Suzaku growling as he threw himself against the door. The doors rattled by didn’t give. He tipped his head back, looking for a way to force them open, but there was no way that he could see. He pounded his fist on the door. “Julius!”

“Suzaku!”

There was a rattle from the other side of the door, Suzaku pressing his ear against it. His breathing sounded too loud in his own ears, almost masking the sound of Julius struggling and shouting for him.

Suzaku pushed away from the doors again, running through his options. He couldn’t reach Lucille and going to find Kaguya and Nunnally would take too long. There was no choice but to take the bait that the ghost offered him.

He reached out to tug on the doors, breathing a sigh of relief when they moved easily under his touch. He shoved the doors open, glancing around in the hopes to spot Julius.

The man wasn’t in the room, but the books that he and Kaguya had been looking at were strewn all over the floor. One of the bookshelves had slid back, Suzaku staring at the empty space. He wasn’t surprised to see the passage after he had found the secret room, but he had assumed that Lucille would have told them about any others. If she had been in the villa for as long as she claimed, then she should have known about it. Her need to keep secrets had brought them to this.

Suzaku stepped up to the passage, staring down into it. He could see a light at the bottom, which meant that the passageway wasn’t too long. He could hear shouts echoing up from the passage, the walls distorted too much for him to pick out what Julius was saying. Suzaku nodded to himself, stepping back to only to feel his foot knock against a book. He stepped to the side, raising an eyebrow at the title of the book on the floor; Dante’s _Divine Comedy: Purgatory_. Suzaku rolled his eyes and dug his phone out of his pocket. He wasn’t sure he would be able to contact Kaguya when he reached the bottom, and it was better than being under prepared. He glanced at his phone before he walked into the passage.

He kept his pace slow, testing out the slope of the passage. It move gradually downward gently enough that Suzaku could risk moving faster. He nodded to himself before breaking into a run again, too impatient to sneak down, especially since Julius had abruptly gone silent.

He jogged down the tunnel, keeping as quiet as he could until he got down towards the end. The continued silence from Julius worried him, Suzaku throwing caution to the wind and pushing himself faster until he stumbled to the large chamber at the end.

“Julius?!” There was no answer, Suzaku listening to his voice echo around the chamber.

He turned in place, searching for any clue to where Julius had been dragged to. Suzaku wouldn’t have been surprised if there was another passage, maybe one that led up to the secret bedroom. It was just a matter of finding the entrance.

His attention was caught by an outfit on a stand, Suzaku stopping when he recognized Zero’s uniform. It looked old fashioned, which probably meant that it was the original. Suzaku took a step closer, reaching out to touch the sleeve before he jerked his hand back. If it was the original then it was priceless. Although, what it was doing tucked away was beyond him. Suzaku stared at it for a moment more before stepping around it.

Just behind the stand was a small table, almost invisible from where it was pushed against the wall. Suzaku cautiously made his way over, stopping when his foot brushed over a slightly raised section on the floor. He quickly lifted his foot up and looked down.

There were two slabs of stone on the floor, both of them raised just enough that his foot would knock against them if he stepped short of them. Suzaku dropped to one knee beside them, leaning over to the one on his right. He brushed the thin layer of dust off the slab, revealing the letters carved into it.

Suzaku Kururugi  
2000-2080  
A loyal and consummate knight to her Royal Highness Princess Euphemia li Britannia and his Imperial Majesty Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of Britannia.  
Brave knight, beloved friend and protector of Pax Britannia.

Suzaku jerked his hand away, staring at the dates carved in stone. The death date alone would make it match up to what the list of Zeros, but Suzaku was surprised that the man had lived so long without anyone questioning him. Then again, no one really looked at the person behind Zero. They were a symbol before they were a person, the perfect hiding place for a man who was supposed to be dead. The fact that he was credited with helping with the peace confirmed it all.

He turned towards the other slab, surprised to see that the inscription was clear. He scooted closer, reading off the second dedication.

Lelouch vi Britannia  
1999-2018  
Beloved brother, Zero and 99th Emperor of Britannia.  
To you who brought peace to the rest of the world, may you rest in peace.

Suzaku frowned and stood up, shaking his head over the inscription. It was nothing radical, but its placement made no sense. He walked over to the table in the hopes that there would be a better explanation. There was plenty of evidence that Lelouch hadn’t been any of those things attributed to him on the monument, not unless some old empire fanatic had created the place. Everything he had learned about Emperor Lance pointed towards that, but that didn’t explain the shrine looking table back against the wall.

He stepped up to the lone table, glancing at the candles and incense that had been pushed to the side to make room in the center. Whatever had been there was gone, giving Suzaku an uninterrupted view of the picture that had probably been in the center of the table at one time.

For a moment, the thought that it was a picture of him, but the thought was ridiculous. With the two slabs behind them, the two in the picture had to be Lelouch and Suzaku, the Knight of Zero. Suzaku had his arm slung over Lelouch’s shoulder, the two of them looking like they were laughing.

Suzaku found himself smiling at the picture before he shook his head. The whole set up was confusing. It looked like a place to honor the two, but it was set up underground. In fact, the whole thing felt like a tomb.

She bit his lip, turning around to look at the slabs. Lelouch’s mausoleum was empty, as Kaguya had found out, and the Knight of Zero’s grave in Japan had to be empty. It hadn’t felt like there had been anyone buried there and everything they were finding said that the man had lived longer than said the date on his grave in Japan. It was possible that the two of them had been moved for their own safety, but it couldn’t hurt to check. If he didn’t, then he could risk missing something important. He sighed and closed his eyes, concentrating on the slabs.

There was definitely a presence in the Knight of Zero’s grave, but it was faint. The body was there but the spirit has passed on a long time ago.

Suzaku shifted his attention to Lelouch’s slab, sucking in a breath when he felt a definite grounding. There was a body under the slab. That alone explained Lelouch’s tie to the house, it was the place where his body was buried as well as the last place he had lived. But that also meant that he had a definite way to track the ghost. The house might be saturated with the ghost’s presence, but tracking him from the source would find him faster than wandering until the ghost’s interest returned. He tipped his head to the side, concentrating harder.

He startled when the trail ended abruptly close by. He opened his eyes to find Julius staring at him.

Suzaku tried to smile, the expression fading when his gaze dropped down to the mask that Julius held. His stomach twisted at the sight of it.

It was Zero’s mask.

Suzaku shivered at the sight of the discoloration on the side of the mask. He quickly looked up to meet Julius’ gaze again. “Julius?”

“I wondered when you’d come down here. With all our talks in the library I had hoped that you would find this earlier. Or at least begin to figure it out. I tried my best to spell it out, even with C.C. warning you.”

“Who?”

Julius didn’t seem to hear the question. He just walked forward, Suzaku watching in horror as a red stain spread across the front of his shirt. Julius didn’t notice, all of his concentration of him.

“I knew you would come back, you always did. I had hoped we would have more time. We didn’t have enough last time.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I need you.” Julius’ clothes fell away, leaving the white robes of the emperor behind. When he smiled, it was the all too familiar smile of Emperor Lelouch, the one that Suzaku had seen too many times in books and old newsreels. Worse still, it was the same smile that Julius had been giving him during their secret meetings in the library, or had it always been Lelouch? If that was the case, he couldn’t pick out when he had been talking to Lelouch and when he’d been talking to Julius.

He didn’t get the chance to think over it, Lelouch shoving the mask into his hands. Suzaku dropped his phone, about to drop the mask when Lelouch pressed it against his chest.

“You’re the only one who can do this.”

Suzaku glanced down at his mask, shaking his head. “I can’t.”

“You can be a hero, Suzaku.” He shivered as he felt Lelouch’s fingers slip into his pocket. He jerked away only to have Lelouch step back, the protection charm held in his fingers. Lelouch dropped it to the floor, reaching for him.

Suzaku stepped back. “What are you doing? Get away!”

He leaned backwards as Lelouch reached for him again. He gasped as the ghost grabbed his head, holding him in place as Lelouch stepped closer to him.

The ghost stroked his thumbs against the side of Suzaku’s face, the motion strangely calming. Suzaku found himself staring into Lelouch’s eyes, distracted by the strange red, bird-shaped flaws as Lelouch spoke.

“Come back to me, Suzaku Kururugi.”


	9. Chapter Eight: Revenant

“A prince’s power makes all his actions virtue.  
We whom he works by are dumb instruments,  
To do, but not enquire: his great intents  
Are to be served, not searched.”  
– _Sejanus_ , Ben Jonson

* * *

C.C. slammed the chest shut, coughing when a puff of dust rose from it. She waved a hand in front of her face, trying to clear the air as she looked around the room. The gloom of the attic made all of the things that the museums left behind look like vague shadows. At least they had taken all the clothes stands, which meant that she was no longer peering around the attic in the hopes that she could see Lelouch and talk to him. The days when she thought that she could actually talk to Lelouch were long gone, his ghost was too confused for her to do that.

She hadn’t spoken to him much in the early days, mostly because she had been surprised that he was still around. She had assumed that he would eventually fade away when the aftereffects of Zero Requiem had calmed down. When he hadn’t, she had assumed that it was because the people he had left behind. He had wanted a kinder, gentler world for his sister and it was just like Lelouch to stick around to see that she took full advantage of his gift to her. Maybe it was her fault then, because she had done nothing to urge him on before he lost his mind. She should have realized what was going on before he started kill people.

In her defense, she had been too busy trying to keep herself from being dragged into Emperor Lance’s games to pay attention to one ghost. Besides, he had gone quiet for a suspiciously long while, she had just thought that he had gone to his rest when Nunnally had gone to hers. Or maybe his decline had started long before that. After all, the last five years of Empress Nunnally’s life had been full of loss, starting with the death of Suzaku, then her firstborn son and then her husband. With the way that Lelouch had hovered around her and her children, it was a surprise that he hadn’t gone mad long before his sister had died.

C.C. drummed her fingers against the chest before standing up. There were a few more things that she could look into, but she doubted that she could find anything up in the attic. Lelouch had never liked it, he had always liked to be surrounded by people, even if he couldn’t be seen. Anything in the attic was just the detritus of three monarchs with nothing left about Lelouch. He had made sure that nothing but the Demon Emperor survived, and she found herself regretting it.

There were too many factors in why Lelouch had stayed behind, and they didn’t have the time to untangle them. If they needed untangling at all. She would leave that to the others when they started going over what had happened at the Aries Villa. All she cared about was keeping her promises.

She had promised Lelouch that she would check in on Nunnally and she had promised Nunnally that she would keep an eye on Lelouch while she was still alive. Before all of that, she had promised Marianne that she would look after her children, but that promise had little bearing anymore.

Most importantly, she had promised Lelouch that she would be his accomplice, his ally and that she wouldn’t let another person she had given a geass to go mad again. It was long past time for that. She do them both a favor and end things before Lelouch became something less than a person. If anything, it was in honor of her memory of him that she had to act against him. She had just hoped that Suzaku and Kaguya would have been able to handle it.

C.C. slapped the top of the chest before moving away. She wouldn’t get anything done while she was stuck in the attic and Lelouch certainly wasn’t helping. She couldn’t feel him through her connection to C’s World, which meant that she would have to trek through the house until she found something that felt like him. C.C. ran a hand down her face before making her way back to the door. She couldn’t help but look at the place where Zero’s outfit would have stood, feeling a shiver run down her spine. That was the one stand she would have preferred to remain in the attic or, better yet, somewhere far away in a museum.

She slipped through the door, taking the cramped stairway instead of the larger entrance. She didn’t want to be seen for this, not when the others were still hoping to lure Lelouch out with Nunnally. Hopefully, Lelouch had managed to keep hold of what little was left of his sanity and avoid the trap until she was done with him.

C.C. slipped as quietly as she could through the corridors, tipping her head to the side when she heard voices in the upstairs hallway. She paused at one of the crossings, sighing when she recognized Kaguya and Nunnally’s voices. They were heading down to the back of the house if she heard right, which made everything easier for her. She could use the front stairs instead of making her way through the convoluted servants’ stairways and passages. The only problem with the two was the fact that she could only hear Kaguya and Nunnally. C.C. remained in place, listening for the sound of Suzaku’s voice, but it never came.

She cursed under her breath, dashing for the front stairs. She didn’t have the time to go and demand to know where Suzaku had gone, if she wasted any more time then it would be too late.

Lelouch might have come out to see Nunnally, he had never been able to resist his sister. The whole point of having Nunnally there was to distract Lelouch until Suzaku and Kaguya could do something or she could.

C.C. took the stairs two at a time, grabbing onto the railing as she nearly fell over. She gritted her teeth, leaning heavily on the bannister for a moment before pushing away. There were only a few places that she could look for Lelouch, especially since he wasn’t going after Nunnally.

She took off towards the library, not having to go too far to see that the doors were open. C.C. distinctly remembered closing the doors, like she always did when she was closing the house for the night. None of the other doors were open, which meant that the library hadn’t been opened in a specific search.

C.C. slowed down as she approached the doors, sighing when she saw that the passageway was open as well. She hesitated by the door, preferring to look around rather than charge down the passage. She had done it once and it had ended badly. This would take a different approach, something with more finesse. She was not keen to misread Lelouch again or talk him into doing something that he regretted. She might just get lucky considering the date, Lelouch wasn’t likely to let himself start falling apart when he was so focused on something important. It was just a matter of playing him right, and she’d had plenty of practice with that.

She stepped into the library, carefully picking her way through the books that had been pushed off of tables. She flicked her tongue against the top of her mouth, shaking her head at the mess. To her, it didn’t look like a panic, it looked like a temper tantrum. C.C. bent down to scoop one of the books up, paging through the scrapbook. She was tempted to remove the photographs of her, just to make sure that nothing like this happened again, but she didn’t have the time. C.C. sighed and tossed the book back on the table. There were other things to do, more pressing things.

She turned her attention back to the passage, ignoring the shiver that went down her spine. There were no corners on the way down and it was brightly lit, the whole system was probably attached to the mansion’s. It was nothing like dark passages that were peppered all over gothic novels or horror movies, but that just meant that she had spent too much time indulging herself in fantasies. There hadn’t been anyone who had called her attention for years. Then again, she hadn’t been looking, she was still mourning Lelouch in her own way. It was long past time for her to put her own ghosts to rest, and the only one was probably still lingering by his grave.

C.C. ducked through the doorway behind the bookshelf, resting her hand against the wood as she stared down. She could still feel Lelouch below her, C.C. taking a deep breath before she stepped into the passageway proper.

It took him a moment, but she could feel when Lelouch realized that she was there. C.C. wasn’t too surprised that he had figured out the connection, it hadn’t taken his mother much longer to figure out the same thing. The corner of her mouth twitched up, but she stopped herself from smiling. It wasn’t the time to be comparing the two, she only had the length of the passage to figure out what she would have to do, but that wasn’t much trouble after all. She had spent most of her life running from one thing or another, she was quick on her feet.

She stepped out into the open chamber, C.C. sparing a glance at the table along the back wall. The mask was gone, leaving the original picture in place. She shook her head at the two teenagers that smiled out from the frame. The picture was an illusion of simpler days, of the world that Lelouch had once held so dear.

She pulled her attention away from the picture, not surprised to see Lelouch standing in the center of the room. He was eyeing her carefully, C.C. remaining still to give Lelouch time to work through who she was.

It took him a moment before his shoulders relaxed, Lelouch still not giving up his regal bearing. He smiled to see her, taking a slow step forward. “C.C, I thought you wouldn’t come.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I thought you would be mad at me. All of this time and I couldn’t uphold my end of our deal.”

C.C. sighed at the familiar words. They had had this conversation a hundred years ago. She had held the memory close over the years, the two of them whispering the words in the dark while Suzaku slept. C.C. was half tempted to search for Suzaku, but she didn’t dare to take her attention away from Lelouch.

There was something about Lelouch’s smile that was fragile, and not because he was talking about his death. C.C. had seen that pained expression on Lelouch’s face before, but what she was seeing was something different, something more familiar to the restless ghost that had been haunting the halls.

She studied him for a moment before lifting her shoulder up in a shrug. Since he hadn’t attacked her outright it wouldn’t hurt to play along. Besides, she had already pinpointed the time he was talking about, it would be easy enough to steer the conversation, especially since she had the upper hand.

C.C. absently twirled a strand of hair around her finger, watching Lelouch out of the corner of her eye. “I never expected you to after C’s World.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I gave my word.”

“Like you gave it to Suzaku?” She bit her lip before she could mention Nunnally. It wasn’t the time to be needling him, this wasn’t one of their conversations like before. “I purposely tricked you into that contract. That voids it legality.”

“We never agreed on anything legally.”

C.C. laughed, almost surprised at how easy it was to sink into the conversation. “Maybe I should have done that.”

“Maybe.” The smile on Lelouch’s face died, C.C. watching as he turned to look at something. She tried to lean out around him, frowning when he easily stepped in front of her to block her view. “What will you do?”

“I’ve stayed this long…”

“You shouldn’t see this.”

She huffed and gave him a sharp look. “I’m staying.”

Lelouch looked relieved, more like the Lelouch she remembered from the last few weeks before Zero Requiem. This Lelouch looked more human, almost to the point where she was tempted to reach out and touch his cheek like she had many times before. C.C’s hand twitched by her side, but she didn’t allow it to move. She didn’t want to have her hand fall through Lelouch and ruin it all. She needed Lelouch to be stable for a while longer.

She curled her fingers into the fabric of her pants, keeping herself still as Lelouch reached out to set a hand on her shoulder. He patted her shoulder awkwardly before letting his hand just rest there. “Thank you.”

His awkwardness would have been funny if he hadn’t looked so relieved by the fact that she wasn’t going to leave him. Then again, Lelouch had always had a fear of people leaving him and for good reason.

Lelouch’s hand lingered on her shoulder for a moment before he turned away from her, giving her a good view of the room. C.C. spared a glance at where he was making his way over to the clothing stand before she looked back at the portion of the room that he had been obscuring.

She jerked forward a step when she saw Suzaku slumped against the far wall, stopping herself from running to him. C.C. rocked in place, giving her enough time to look Suzaku over. He didn’t seem to be suffering, in fact, he looked like he was fast asleep. She could even see the folded shape of Zero’s cape tucked carefully behind his head. That was something she would have expected from Lelouch, not his half crazed ghost. The fact that Suzaku was unconscious was worrying, but not a priority. He was breathing and seemed to be alright, everything else she could work with when the time came.

C.C. turned to face Lelouch, watching him play with the lapel of Zero’s jacket. He seemed to be trying to smooth it down, not that his constant picking did much for it. C.C. sighed and stepped up, waving him away so she could put the suit to rights. She thought she heard him sigh, but she ignored him, too busy going over the suit.

She didn’t think Lelouch would do anything surprising, but she wasn’t going to let her guard down again. It was worrying enough that he had coaxed Suzaku down to the tomb before knocking him out.

She slowed the movement of her hand when Lelouch cursed, turning her head slightly to watch as he paced the space beside her. Everyone once and a while he would glance up at the ceiling before shaking his head. C.C. hummed, the sound showing that she was listening even as she continued to inspect the old suit.

It took until she was running her fingers over the bloodstains on the hip of the uniform for Lelouch to speak up. He stopped his pacing and ran a hand through his hair, his eyes still trained on the ceiling. “I thought it would be easy, everything was in place and then…”

C.C. watched him out of the corner of her eye before turning away from the suit. Lelouch continued to stare at the ceiling for a moment more before he lowered his eyes. “I’m being forced to rush.”

“Why?”

He held up his hand, ticking off the reasons on his fingers. “I have a small window of opportunity to work in, the things that I laid out were taken and I was left with the suit and mask alone. I couldn’t find Suzaku…”

Lelouch trailed off, his attention moving back to where Suzaku was. He swayed in place before walking over to where Suzaku was, acting like he had completely forgotten C.C. was there.

She was almost glad of it. Following Lelouch’s half aware ramblings was harder than she had expected. It was a strange combination of Lelouch’s last night on earth and whatever he had cobbled together after a hundred years of being trapped in the Aries Villa with time marching unrelentingly onward.

C.C. lowered her gaze to the stain on the uniform again, running her fingers around the edges of it. She had spent a long portion of the first years of Nunnally’s reign wandering through Britannia. She hadn’t even been aware that Zero’s outfit hadn’t been the original but, seeing the stains on it, she could see why Suzaku would have tried to get rid of it. She couldn’t imagine living with the blood of someone he cared about on him at all times. She remembered frantically scrubbing all of the clothes that Sister Marie had given her, trying to get the memory of the women out of them. She didn’t doubt that Suzaku had tried the same thing, but to no avail. Something of Lelouch had remained behind.

She jerked her hand away, turning around to look at Lelouch. The ghost had knelt beside Suzaku, Lelouch combing his fingers through Suzaku’s hair. Lelouch paused when Suzaku whimpered in his sleep, C.C. catching the edge of a word. She couldn’t make out the rest of it, but Lelouch did. He sighed and let his hand drop away. When he did look back at her he just shook his head. “He’ll be ready when the time comes.”

“And you?”

“I’ve been ready for a…a long while. I’m just glad that I got to see Nunnally before-” Lelouch cut himself off with a shake of his head, a fond smile crossing his face. “She’s grown while I was away, and I missed it.”

“Maybe you should have kept quiet and watched.”

Lelouch laughed. “You wouldn’t have let me.”

“No, you wouldn’t have stayed.” It was a struggle to keep her voice even. C.C. swallowed and went to turn around.

There was no point in sticking around for much longer, not when she already knew what she had to do. There was no saving Suzaku, not that he was in any danger if what she was seeing meant anything. Kaguya and Nunnally were a completely different story.

“C.C. No,-” She came to an abrupt stop in surprise as Lelouch spoke her real name.

C.C. hesitated for a moment before laughing. “You still don’t say it right.”

“I’m trying.” Lelouch sounded more amused than angry.

“It’s good to hear it though.”

Lelouch nodded, something in his expression telling her that he hadn’t heard what she had said. He was already off again, getting dragged to another point in time. Lelouch focused on Suzaku, studying the man for a moment more before shrugging and standing up. When he looked at her, he almost seemed surprised that she was there. “C.C, what are you doing here?”

“Checking up on you.”

Lelouch huffed and waved her away impatiently. “Thing are all under control. I’ll have things ready on time. You should go elsewhere. You shouldn’t see this.”

“I promised I would stay didn’t I?” It hurt more than it should to see Lelouch look up in confusion. C.C. took a step back, watching as Lelouch rose to his feet. The motion was jerky, Lelouch going from kneeling on the ground before disappearing and reappearing halfway between her and Suzaku. Lelouch studied her for a moment, C.C. meeting his gaze evenly. “We’re partners.”

“Not in this.”

C.C. opened his mouth before snapping it shut. She didn’t think it would be smart to argue with Lelouch in this state. She had missed her chance back when Lelouch had been amiable. She had a window of retreat and she would be smart to use it. Besides, if Lelouch was going to be occupied then it gave her time to work her own plan.

She gave Lelouch one last look, watching as he flickered and disappeared again. C.C. glanced around the room, expecting him to appear beside Suzaku again, but he didn’t reappear. She frowned, trying to figure out where he had gone, but it was hard to sense him so far underground. Somewhere close by was the destroyed door to C’s World. It didn’t matter that the physical door was gone, she could still feel it. The Collective Unconscious was always loud, far louder than a single consciousness.

C.C. muttered a curse under her breath, turning slowly in place before giving up. Lelouch would appear again when the time was right, or when he had found what he was looking for.

She gave the ceiling of the chamber another glance before crossing the room to where Suzaku was curled up against the wall. If Lelouch appeared upstairs, then she was sure that Kaguya and Nunnally could hold him off long enough. Lelouch would never hurt Nunnally, it was the other people that she had to worrying about. Still, there were a few hours left until morning and she was sure that it would be her only chance to see what Lelouch had done.

She knelt beside Suzaku, resting a hand on his shoulder. Suzaku didn’t react like he had to Lelouch, although his face screwed up like he was having a bad dream. C.C. rested a hand on his forehead, smoothing his bangs back from his eyes. It was a familiar motion, one that she had done with both Suzaku and Lelouch many times while they had been ruling Britannia. She frowned when he relaxed into the motion, hearing her name slip from his lips.

It wasn’t a name that she had ever given him, it wasn’t a name she had used in a hundred years.

C.C. moved her hand down Suzaku’s face, resting her fingers against Suzaku’s cheek. She waited until he had settled again before she used her thumb to gently lift one eyelid. Suzaku’s eye twitched restlessly, the boy probably having dreams she couldn’t even begin to work through. She didn’t think she could delve into them or even try to shock him awake; she had no control over what he would see if she tried to use her connection to C’s World.

It didn’t take long for Suzaku’s eye to jerk back her way, C.C. dropping his eyelid and scooting back. She didn’t need a second look, there was no mistaking the red band around the outside of Suzaku’s eye.

C.C. scrambled to her feet, staring at Suzaku as he twitched in his sleep. She hadn’t believed that Lelouch was still in possession of his Geass, but she hadn’t had any of her contracts go beyond death. Usually she left them in her dust long before they were dead, but it would make sense if it remained. A ghost was the consciousness of the person and their latent emotions and the Geass was a conscious act of will. There was no mistaking the fact that Lelouch still had his willpower, the question was what he was directing it towards and what he had commanded Suzaku to do.

She glanced back at the Zero’s uniform, feeling a shiver run down her spine. Then again, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out what Lelouch wanted; ghosts did tend to be single minded. She reached out for the uniform, only to jerk her hand back.

What happened depended entirely on what mood Lelouch was in when he decided the time had come, but C.C. had learned that it was better to be safe than sorry. Discretion was the better part of valor, all too often running away was the best option. It would be better to get everyone away and out of the house until Lelouch had calmed down.

There was a point to his frenzy, but C.C. wasn’t willing to trust Lelouch to keep himself focused. For all she knew, he would turn his attention to all of them, and that would be disastrous.

She set her jaw and walked faster. Lelouch was gone on some errand, but there was no telling how long he would be gone. Time was of the essence and she had three people to get out of the villa. If that was the case, then she would have to move fast. C.C. grimaced and rolled up her sleeves.

It was just like old times, Lelouch was making trouble for her and she was the only one that could get it out of it. C.C. rolled her eyes. That was one thing she hadn’t missed in one hundred years of staying in place. She hadn’t missed chasing after Lelouch and cleaning up his messes. Still, it was one more adventure before it was all over, and she was so ready for it to be all over.

* * *

Kaguya shut the door carefully behind her, resting her forehead against it before turning around. She couldn’t see Nunnally in the room on the opposite side of the hall, but she could hear the woman’s wheelchair as she moved around. Kaguya sighed and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

It had been hours since they had started searching and they had found nothing. She had fully expected for the ghost to come after them, or to at least hear from Suzaku, but there had been nothing but silence. That was more unnerving than catching glimpses of the ghost over and over.

She pushed away from the door, looking back down the hall. She and Nunnally were working their way back from a dead end just behind the emperor’s rooms. At least the two of them knew the layout of the upper floors, in case they needed to run, but Kaguya doubted that they would have that problem. For the moment, it looked like they had missed their one chance. Who would have known the Demon Emperor would be shy to show himself?

Kaguya groaned and raked a hand through her hair, wincing when the motion pulled it out of her sloppy hairstyle. She made a face and shook out her fingers. She would have taken the time to make herself look more presentable, but they had been hurried.

Lucille had been the one pushing them to work faster, now that she thought about it. Maybe they had wasted their time going through all the upstairs rooms, maybe they should have just gone straight for the caretaker. After all, the woman said that she was cursed and then said that she didn’t want it to be lifted. In all of her life, Kaguya had never met anyone who wanted a curse to remain in place. Then again, she had never heard of someone working _for_ a ghost. From her experience, it was incredibly hard to work with a ghost, they were never stable enough for anything other than their one goal.

She dropped her hand back to her side as she saw Nunnally emerge from the room. Kaguya fully expected the confused shrug that she was given. “He isn’t there?”

“I didn’t think he would be.”

“But why wouldn’t he?” Nunnally worried her lip between her teeth. “I look like his sister, right? And his sister tried to kill him.”

“Ghosts can be confusing.”

“But it matches with what you told me. He’s killing for his Britannia.”

Kaguya nodded, scanning the hallway. She had heard what Julius had found out, and it made perfect sense from what they knew about Lelouch, except that Lelouch wasn’t acting as expected. It was one thing for a ghost to be irrational, Kaguya almost expected it from them, but it was another for the ghost to ignore its own patterns and obsessions. It was getting to the point when she was doubting everything that she said, which was like being back when she and Suzaku had first started, and she hated it.

She curled her fingers into fists, taking a deep breath as she looked around the empty hall. She was sick of just stumbling around in the dark and hoping for a good outcome. She and Suzaku had done everything right, from using their standby of talismans to create a trap for low powered ghosts and sleeping in the villa itself to setting a specialized trap for the ghost. And nothing had worked.

It was time for them to stop being jerked around, to stop depending on what the caretaker of the house and what the legends said. The latter were sometimes enough to go on but the former had proven to be an unreliable source.

“What do we do?”

Nunnally’s question shocked her out of her thoughts. Kaguya turned to look back at the woman, frowning at the exhaustion that she saw on Nunnally’s face. There was no point in pushing the two of them or rushing further; that would just put all of them in more danger.

She shook her head and leaned back against the door. “We keep going, at least for tonight.”

“And after?”

Kaguya raised one shoulder in a shrug. She turned to start back down the hall, but she stopped herself from moving on. She didn’t want to circle around to the elevator just yet. She would give Suzaku and Lucille a little more time to scour the ground floor before going to join them. Suzaku might have been willing to follow along with what Lucille said, but she wanted to have a plan before going down and being maneuvered into another harebrained idea.

She glanced around the hall, fully expecting to see a flicker of white or to spot a leering face leaning out of one of the rooms. Kaguya didn’t relax when she didn’t see either of them, she just drummed her fingers against the side of her leg.

And after was the question of this whole job. It was the only question that they had managed to answer, and that had been when she and Suzaku had been focused on themselves. The closest they had come to figuring out how to deal with the ghost had been with Julius, and even that didn’t seem to be working out. Nunnally looked enough like the empress and her connections to the government should have been enough to tempt the ghost out. Obviously they had underestimated Lelouch, something that they had been doing from the start.

She looked back at Nunnally, looking the woman up and down before speaking. “Is the offer to use the library in the palace still open?”

“Yes, why?”

“Because we’re going to need to start this again.” The words pained her to say, but it was what needed to be done.

She expected a pained look from Nunnally, but she looked relieved. Kaguya tipped her head to the side, watching as Nunnally rubbing a hand across her stomach. “Yes, it’s still open, but that means you’ll probably want to borrow my brother. He knows that place better than anyone I know.”

“We’ll take any help we can get.” Kaguya wanted to laugh, but the sound caught in her throat. That was one part of her problem solved, but that didn’t help her with the rest.

The ghost would have to be left alone for a while, which could be a good thing. They could still keep people from coming to the Aries Villa on the off chance that Lelouch decided to lash out against an innocent. Better yet, they would avoid the day of the ghost’s death, the day that he would be the most active. Being unprepared on that day would bring them nothing but trouble. Kaguya also couldn’t shake the awful feeling that having Suzaku in the same place wouldn’t be safe either. Twice the ghost had managed to do something to him, and she didn’t want to risk a third time.

She turned back to Nunnally, about to ask if there was a way that she and Suzaku could be moved away from the villa when she heard someone running down the hall.

Despite the fact that she knew that Nunnally couldn’t be running towards her, she looked back at the woman. Nunnally looked just as startled as she felt, although Nunnally seemed to recover faster. The woman moved forward, leaning forward in her wheelchair like it would help her see who was coming around the corner.

Kaguya reached into her pocket, fingering the talisman that she had stored there. It wouldn’t do much if they were confronted by the ghost, but it would at least slow him down long enough for the two of them to dodge around him. There was a chance that they could make it to the elevator and down before the ghost recovered. Then again, in her experience, ghosts didn’t usually make sounds when they ran.

She pulled her hand out of her pocket, letting a bit of the talisman dangle out. It would be easy to reach if she needed to move quickly. Kaguya took a slow step forward, reaching one hand out for the back of Nunnally’s wheelchair when Lucille came jogging around the corner.

She jerked her hand back, watching as Lucille scanned the hallway warily. Whatever the woman was watching out for must not have been there because Lucille looked back at them. She stepped to the side and gestured at the clear space in the hall. “It’s time to leave. Call your brother to come and get you.”

Nunnally nodded curtly, pulling out her phone and dialing. Kaguya was surprised by the immediate compliance, but the glance that Nunnally shot her made her doubt that Nunnally was just following orders. After all, the two of them had just been talking about leaving the investigation for the time being. Kaguya thought that she saw a frown flicker across Nunnally’s face, but it was gone as she concentrated on her phone.

Kaguya took Nunnally’s lapse of attention to study Lucille, not liking the way that the woman kept looking around nervously. The woman had said that she could sometimes sense the ghost, but she didn’t look like she was looking at a specific spot. If anything, Lucille looked like she expected Lelouch to appear at any moment. That kind of nervousness put her on edge, especially when no one appeared to be following Lucille.

She walked past Lucille to check where the hallway met the junction. Behind her, she could hear Nunnally striking up a conversation with her brother, but she didn’t pay attention to what was being said, she was too busy looking down the hallway towards the stairs. It was very possible that Suzaku would be checking through the other rooms, Kaguya shivering at the thought. She didn’t want her cousin being trapped in one of the rooms again, or cornered by the ghost like he had been earlier that evening. She trusted Suzaku to be careful, but not when this ghost was involved, not when it had so much power over him.

Kaguya turned on her heel, walking back to where Lucille was covering close to Nunnally. She caught a snippet of the conversation, Julius talking with a sleepy slur to his voice. A good half of his words were unrecognizable, but Nunnally seemed to have no problem. She was nodding along, a tight smile on her face.

“Just as soon as you can. We’ll be waiting for you.” Another one of Julius’ quiet replies followed, the slur in his voice slowly working itself out. The expression on Nunnally’s face didn’t change. “No, I promise I’m fine. We just didn’t have any luck.”

The two carried on their conversation, Kaguya carefully stepping around Nunnally’s wheelchair to get closer to Lucille. It wouldn’t take Julius long to get from the palace to the villa. It was probably just enough time for her to grab her and Suzaku’s things. Whether they stayed in the palace or moved to a hotel, Kaguya didn’t want to stay in the house on the day of Lelouch’s murder. But it was more than that, the feeling of the presence in the house was changing. It was stronger, strong enough that she could feel it pressing down on her every moment. Strong enough that she was sure that it would have sent Suzaku reeling if he was there.

She turned on Lucille, stepping to the side to keep Lucille from looking away. “Where’s Suzaku?”

It took a while for the question to sink in, Kaguya seeing it the moment that Lucille registered the question. The woman’s eyes widened a fraction before her usual look of indifference was restored. “He’s downstairs.”

“Where?”

“It doesn’t matter. You and Nunnally have to get out of here as fast as possible.”

“What?!” Kaguya shouted the word, surprised that Lucille was able to hold her gaze.

The woman stared at her for a long moment before shaking her head. “No. You and Nunnally will leave when Julius gets here.”

“What about my cousin?”

Lucille’s silence was all the answer she needed.

She stared at the woman for a moment before shaking her head. “No. You are taking me to him and the three of us are leaving.”

“Without finishing the job?”

Kaguya clenched her hand into fists, her jaw working as she tried to force the words out of her mouth. She shook in place, hating the fact that Lucille didn’t look away from her. She didn’t like the choice being implied for her, and Kaguya wasn’t about to be forced into making that decision.

She took a step forward, hoping that Lucille would at least retreat, but the woman didn’t budge. Lucille didn’t seem intimidated in the least, not that Kaguya would let that stop her. She reached out to press a finger against Lucille’s shoulder, narrowing her eyes. “We’ll be back when we have the truth.”

“That will take a while.”

“That’s not going to stop us.”

Lucille muttered something under her breath, Kaguya leaning forward to try and catch what the woman had said. But Lucille was already glaring up at her again. “You’re determined, fine. But help me get Nunnally to safety first.”

“Why? Why is she more important than Suzaku?”

“Because there’s no helping him.” Kaguya was surprised at Lucille’s steady tone of voice. There was flicker of something that could have been an emotion on Lucille’s face, but then it was gone. Lucille shook her head and gestured towards the end of the hall. “Leave now and you can come back and get him tomorrow.”

“And what will I be picking up then? A dead body?” Kaguya heard Nunnally suck in a quick breath behind her.

In the silence that followed her questions Kaguya could hear Julius shouting into the phone. She couldn’t quite make out the sound over the rushing in her ears.

She had lost too many people in her life, her aunt and her uncle to the job, her mother to her distaste to it. Kaguya was sure that she would end up losing her father to the job, just by the wear that it put on him. The idea of her own demise in the job was something that she had gotten used to. She had watched her own family get used up and either stumble away to live out their last remaining years or keep going until they were pulled under. She was waiting for the day that her own father was pulled back into that world, and the only way that she could deal with that knowledge was that she would at least have Suzaku to keep pace with her. But the damn house seemed bent on taking that away from her.

Kaguya stared at Lucille for a moment more before turning on her heel. “Get Nunnally out yourself. I’m going to find Suzaku.”

She expected the huff from Lucille, but she ignored it. Kaguya fully expected Nunnally to get out of the villa by herself. The woman was smart enough to get herself out of now that things were looking bad. It was obvious that the ghost had lost interest in her and had shifted his attention to the rest of them for some reason. Nunnally would be safe to make her way through the halls, it was now Suzaku that she would worry about.

Kaguya made it down to the junction of the hallways, pausing when she heard Nunnally call out her name. The woman still had her phone pressed against her ear, but it didn’t look like she was listening to her brother. Nunnally nodded before tucking the phone against her shoulder. “Kaguya, be careful. And let me know if you find him.”

There was a kind of threat in her voice, but Kaguya was sure that it wasn’t aimed at her. If anything, it just made her smile a bit. She didn’t doubt that Nunnally would come charging back in if need be. Nunnally seemed to take the looming threat of the ghost as seriously as any of them did. Kaguya wasn’t sure if it was because of a sense of duty, some kind of revenge for the way that her legs had been taken from her or a combination of both. All that mattered was the fact that she would get her cousin back.

She shivered and turned back around, freezing when she saw the figure standing in the center of the junction in front of her. The ghost smiled back at her, Kaguya not sure whether it was the expression on the cold that drifted out from the ghost that made her shiver. The ghost looked too pleased with himself, his gaze straying back over to Nunnally before slipping over to where Lucille was standing just behind her. The smile on his face didn’t waver, but Kaguya was sure that his amusement dissipated.

It didn’t take long for the ghost’s attention to move back to her, the sudden scrutiny making her reach for the talisman that was in her pocket. If the ghost was aware of the move, he didn’t show it. He was too busy grinning at her. “Kaguya Sumeragi.”

She gave him a curt nod, not bothering to ask why he was picking her out. All that mattered was that the ghost was focused on her and not on the others. She fingered the piece of paper in her pocket before making up her mind.

Nunnally had to get out of the building, she knew that much, but the ghost was blocking their path. Kaguya didn’t think that she could spring the trap, not even if Nunnally got around him. But she could hold him and get the answers that she needed. Lucille could lie to the two of them but she didn’t believe the ghost would. It might be hard to untangle what the ghost was talking about, but that was better than stumbling through a minefield of lies.

Kaguya pulled the slip of paper out of her pocket, tossing it down on the ground before clapping her hands together. She didn’t bother to look at the ghost as she ducked her head, only pausing long enough to shout back at Lucille and Nunnally. “Get out!”

She heard Nunnally yelp before the woman’s wheelchair whirred. Kaguya kept her eyes open long enough to see Nunnally rush past her, not paying attention to Lucille as she ran by on the other side. She could only hope that Lucille would decide to help them long enough to get Nunnally to safety. Until then, she would hold her ground.

The ghost turned in front of her, reaching out for Nunnally as the woman barreled around the corner and down the hallway that would lead to the elevator. “Nunnally!”

Kaguya took a deep breath and closed her eyes, starting to chant a sutra. It was easy to slip into a semi-trance, Kaguya concentrating on the ghost in front of her instead on the sound of retreating footsteps. She could feel the ghost squirming in the temporary trap, Lelouch probably trying to reach out for Nunnally and draw her back. If he hadn’t be interested before, he was now that she was right in front of him. Kaguya just barely kept from gritting her teeth, not wanting to obscure the words. She wouldn’t be able to hold him for long, already she could smell the paper burning as both she and Lelouch struggled against the binding. From the sharp tang of the smoke, she didn’t have much longer.

There was a snarl from in front of her, Kaguya sucking in a quick breath to keep up her chant. She only managed one more word before she felt the containment snap. She stumbled backwards, waving a hand in front of her face. Kaguya coughed to clear the smoke from her lungs, glancing at the spot where the ghost had once been trapped.

Lelouch was gone, not that she was surprised by that. Most ghosts would flee as soon as the containment around them broke, which meant that he could be anywhere. Kaguya gave the hallway a cautious look over before glancing down at the remains of the talisman.

It was burnt to ashes, but the flames had extinguished as soon as the ghost had disappeared. There was no chance of a fire and the carpet hadn’t been harmed, save for one stain. Still, Kaguya was sure that Lucille would prefer a stain over an entire floor on fire. Besides, the whole villa was due for an overhaul from everything that she had heard. She still stomped on the ashes to make sure that there was no chance of a fire.

She stepped over the stain on the carpet, reaching into her pocket for something else only to find the protection charm that Aunt Kotori had made for her. Kaguya pulled it out, staring at the embroidered design on it. It was something that could help, but not in the way that she needed it.

Kaguya stuffed the charm back into her pocket, glancing down the halls on either side of the junction. She could make a run for her room to collect more talismans. It would never be enough to stop the ghost, but it would at least slow him down as she searched for Suzaku. In the end it would help, the ghost would get progressively weaker with all of his struggles. If she was lucky, then the ghost would eventually give up and leave her to search the villa on her own.

She broke into a run, heading for the front of the villa and her rooms. She would duck in long enough to grab more talismans before making her way downstairs. Hopefully, Lelouch would leave her alone long enough to check in on Nunnally and Lucille. She would only be satisfied when Nunnally was out of the house and heading down the driveway, at least then the ghost wouldn’t come after her.

Kaguya caught herself on the wall beside her room, not bothering to slow down. She reached out for the door, nearly kicking it open in her haste to get in.

Her bag was where she had left in on the bed, some of her other materials piled around it. Kaguya lunged for the bed, snatching up a handful of the slips of paper. She didn’t count them, but she was sure that it would give her enough time to work her way through the house as long as she kept moving. Looking for her cousin on the run wouldn’t be the best way to look, but she wasn’t going to abandon Suzaku during their retreat.

She turned around, jumping to the side when she saw Lelouch stepping through the open door. The ghost didn’t glance around the room, he just walked towards her. The same grin was on his face, Kaguya resisting the urge to punch Lelouch just to get it to go away. It wouldn’t do much, but it would make her feel better.

Kaguya started to edge her way around the ghost, watching Lelouch as he pivoted with her. Kaguya fumbled to get the talismans in order, ready to throw one down and try to push Lelouch away if he came towards her, but Lelouch remained in place.

He remained near the center of the room, the grin on his face turning into something fond. “I didn’t think you would be happy to see me, not after what I did at the UFN meeting, but you are braver than I thought. Certainly you would have had a plan.”

She felt the corner of her mouth twitch up. “Don’t underestimate me.”

“Of course not. You’re my goddess of victory, are you not?”

Kaguya felt her mouth go dry, something about the statement compelling. There was something there, something that she almost remembered. It was excitement and wonder, and betrayal. She shook her head and took a step back, holding one of the paper strips up threateningly. “No.”

The ghost’s shoulders moved, Kaguya’s eyes widening at the motion of a sigh. For a moment, the ghost almost looked sad before his smug look was back in place. “I expected not. I had hoped…” He shook his head and took a step forward, not seeming to care that Kaguya retreated in front of him. “I have no more use for you. All your connections are void and you’re a liability. So this is goodbye, Kaguya Sumeragi.”

Lelouch flickered, Kaguya muttering a curse and tossing the talisman down. He was gone before she could start chanting, Kaguya staring at the empty spot she had been left behind. She cursed again, bending over to pick up the talisman. She wouldn’t have the time to run back upstairs to get more, and the few she had had to be used sparingly. She didn’t want to get caught in a corner with the ghost, especially not if something had happened with Suzaku.

Kaguya went to stand up, freezing when she saw that Lelouch was standing in front of her. She pressed her hand against the talisman to flatten it out, opening her mouth to start the chant when the ghost reached out to touch her.

He rested a hand on her head before pulling it back, the contact brief. “You’ll be one of the few who understand, and for that I’m thankful. Take care of the things I left to you.”

She looked down at the talisman, wasting a moment in confusion. When she looked back up at Lelouch, there was a strange red glint to his eyes. Kaguya started back, but Lelouch followed. She tried to look away from him, but he kept following her. Kaguya threw an arm in front of her face, backing up until she hit the wall of her room. With her free hand, she tapped at the wall, trying to pull herself towards the door.

Kaguya jumped when a cold hand was placed on her arm, a tug getting it to drop away. She tried to yank it away, relieved when her arm easily slid out of Lelouch’s grasp. It was almost too easy, but Kaguya was not about to question a way to escape from the ghost.

She slid past him, grabbing at the doorframe to haul herself away from the ghost and to freedom. The cold at her side disappeared only to reappear as Lelouch stood in front of her, taking up the doorframe.

The look of regret was back on his face, not that it made sense to her. Kaguya took a deep breath, ready to barrel through the ghost when Lelouch ducked his head to meet her gaze.

“Kaguya, I order you to come quietly.”

She felt her body jerk at the command, Kaguya shaking her head as she tried to back away. There were too many important things to do; there was Nunnally to look after and her cousin to find. She wasn’t about to be beaten by a ghost. Kaguya gritted her teeth, dropping the talismans as she clawed at her head.

Even with everything that she had to do, it was hard to resist the order. In fact, it was easier to just listen to the order that repeated itself over in her head. It hurt more to push against it than to relax, and relaxing seemed like the thing to do.

She was tired, and she had been working hard for a purpose that seemed so distant now. Kaguya felt herself relax, the talismans falling from her hand as she sunk into the order. She looked up at the ghost and smiled, getting a fond smile in return.

Lelouch stepped out of her way, some part of her mind noting the way that he stepped around the talisman still on the floor. He made his way to the door before sweeping his hand out in a wide gesture of invitation. “Come on, Kaguya. There’s something I need you see.”

* * *

Nunnally practically shoved the elevator doors open as soon as it stopped. She didn’t even wait for Lucille, steering her wheelchair out into the hall. She glanced around, trying to orient herself. She had never been this far back in the villa, the farthest she had been was the dining room, but everything she had seen about the layout of the villa showed that it had looped around itself. It wouldn’t be too hard to find her way out, it was just a matter of dodging the ghost.

She tipped her head up to look at the ceiling. Kaguya would be holding the ghost for as long as she could, but she didn’t think that would last for long. From what little she could figure out about what Kaguya and Suzaku had been doing, it would be nearly impossible to hold the ghost in place with the way that he was. Nunnally glanced back into the elevator before shaking her head. Kaguya had told her to run, and she would listen, at least long enough to call in more help. Although what help she could bring Nunnally didn’t know.

Nunnally bit her lip, turning her wheelchair as Lucille walked out of the elevator. She felt the woman brush against her wheelchair. Nunnally glanced back at the woman, expecting her to say something about getting out, like she needed the reminder. Then again, Nunnally didn’t know if she could believe Lucille after how Kaguya had acted. She played with the phone she held in her hand before meeting Lucille’s gaze. “Why did you leave Suzaku?”

Lucille narrowed her eyes, the amount of time between the question and her answer making Nunnally uneasy. It was such a simple question so it had to be easy to answer. Nunnally didn’t care if the answer was that the woman was scared, she just wanted to know.

When Lucille didn’t answer, Nunnally turned her wheelchair and started down the hall. She wasn’t going to wait around for the answer. She drummed her fingers nervously against her phone, only realizing that it was still on when she heard the muffled sound of her brother’s voice.

“Nunnally? Are you out?”

She lifted the phone to her ear. “No, we’re on the ground floor.”

Her brother made an impatient noise, Nunnally about to tell him off when Lucille cleared her throat. The sound so close to her made Nunnally jump. She turned her head to look at the woman, lowering the phone slightly.

“I left Suzaku because there wasn’t anything that I could do for him.”

“What do you mean?”

“The ghost already got him.”

“No!” The scream came from her phone, Nunnally looking down at it before tucking it against her shoulder.

“Tell me.”

Lucille raised an eyebrow. Nunnally wasn’t sure if the woman was surprised or just annoyed that she was still pushing. Lucille looked ahead, her focus on the end of the hall instead of Nunnally. “You’re not the only one who reminds Lelouch of someone from when he was alive.”

“So I wasn’t the only bait?” She watched Lucille shake her head. Nunnally sucked in a quick breath, almost sure of the answer that she would get. “Did he know?”

Lucille raised on shoulder in a shrug. “He should have known.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one I know.” Lucille walked ahead, Nunnally not sure if the woman was trying to get out ahead of her or trying to watch out for the ghost.

Nunnally ran her fingers over the controls on her wheelchair. It wasn’t quite fast enough to keep up with Lucille, but she felt safer closer to another person. She eyed the suits of armor, halfway expecting them to jerk into motion. It was something that she had seen in every horror movie, except that the hallway was more frightening than the movies. For one, the ghost had every reason to want to kill her, and it had almost succeeded before.

She lowered her phone from her shoulder, staring at her brother’s name on the display before looking back at Lucille. The caretaker might not have all the answers, but she was the best that they had. Besides, Julius was probably the most lost out of all of them, and he had been close to Suzaku. Nunnally switched her phone to speaker and caught up to Lucille the best she could. “What will happen to him? Or to us?”

“The emperor was always fond of his knight.” Lucille smile, the expression widening when Julius sputtered.

“That didn’t stop him from dying.”

Lucille rolled her eyes at Julius’ reply. “Sir Kururugi was the only one he didn’t sign and execution order for.”

From the way that Julius sucked in a breath Nunnally could tell that he was about to start arguing. She sighed and turned her attention to Julius. “Where are you?”

The question stopped whatever argument that her brother had been willing to start. He huffed, but answered quickly. “I’m in the car, heading out on the royal backroads. I didn’t have time to wake up Jeremiah.”

“And you’re still on the phone?”

“I’m not hanging up, not until I know that you’re safe.”

Lucille made a noise that could have been a scoff, but she moved away before either of them could call her on it.

Nunnally shook her head, focusing on the way that the hallway widened out into the entrance hall. They were almost out, which was the important thing. As much as she wanted to stay behind she would just be a liability. The ghost’s focus might have been split between her and Suzaku before, but there was no way that she would be able to sneak around the house now that the ghost’s attention wasn’t divided. In fact, she was surprised that she had gotten so far through the house without the ghost appearing.

She shivered as she moved out into the entrance hall, Lucille already by the doors. The woman tugged them open, standing back as Nunnally crossed the open space.

Her wheelchair sounded too loud in the quiet house. Nunnally winced and ducked her head, whispering to her brother. “We’ll be heading down the driveway. Don’t get too close.”

“I don’t intend to.” It sounded like Julius was gritting his teeth as he spoke.

He was about to remind him to be safe when someone from behind them cleared their throat. “C.C, this is a surprise.”

Nunnally turned her wheelchair around, staring at the center landing of the stairs. The ghost stood at the top with his arms crossed. Nunnally sucked in a quick breath when she saw someone move behind Lelouch. Her eyes widened when she saw Kaguya there, the woman shivering and twitching. “Kaguya!”

Lelouch twisted slightly to look at her, Nunnally seeing his eyes narrow. His hands twitched, the fabric of his sleeves bunching as he turned to look back at Lucille. “I see. I thought better of you.”

“Lelouch-”

“Out of everyone… Why? It is because I can’t fulfil my contract?”

Lucille huffed, mimicking his pose. “We discussed this.”

“Then why are you helping them? Both of them should be in holding until the executions.”

Nunnally shivered at the mention of execution, barely hearing her brother trying to get her attention. She couldn’t look away from the ghost and his captive behind him. Kaguya had stopped twitching and was staring off into the distance. The blankness in Kaguya’s stare unnerved her. She couldn’t imagine how the ghost could be possessing Kaguya while he was talking to them. If he could, then Nunnally was sure that they were horribly outmatched.

She grabbed for the sides of her wheelchair as Lucille moved past her. Her phone fell out of her hands and clattered to the floor. Nunnally reached for it only to freeze when Lucille stepped in front of her. She shot the woman a surprised look, one that Lelouch ignored entirely.

“We don’t have a holding area. We don’t have anything.”

Lelouch didn’t seem to hear her. He walked forward, Kaguya trailing silently after him. Nunnally wasn’t sure if she was more frightened by the fact that the ghost was completely ignoring her or his proximity. She shrunk back, glancing between Lucille and the ghost as they squared off.

Lucille drummed her fingers against her arm before flicking them towards the door. “You’re taking this too far Lelouch.”

“No. I’m making this right. The world is in chaos.”

“Teething problems.”

“No. I promised her a kinder and gentler world.”

“I thought you had stopped hiding behind that excuse.”

“That’s not the point.” Lelouch seemed to loom over them again, but all Lucille did was flick her fingers back towards the door. Lelouch didn’t seem to notice, her was too busy staring her down. “I made a promise to my sister, isn’t that enough?”

“No. This isn’t about her.”

“You’re right, it’s about the world. Everything’s in place, but I need them there.”

“Lelouch,” Lucille stepped forward, reaching out for the ghost. Nunnally was surprised when Lelouch allowed it. She cupped his cheek, holding his gaze on her. “It’s over, Lelouch. You did it, so you can rest now.”

“No. Everything is still wrong.” The ghost’s face crumpled from anger to confusion. “Can’t you see it?”

Lucille nodded slowly. “But it’s lasted for a hundred years. Don’t you trust Euphemia to keep the peace? You trusted her before.”

Lelouch nodded along, his head jerking up halfway through the motion. The ghost stared at Lucille his eyes narrowing. “Euphy’s dead.”

Nunnally gasped at the announcement despite her better judgement. She knew that Euphemia was safely back in the palace, sleep deprived, but alive. The words still shocked her hand sent a shock of fear through her.

The noise seemed to remind Lelouch that she was still there. The expression on his face softened for a moment before the serious expression settled back into place. He went to move around Lucille, partially stepping through the woman. “I’m not going to argue with you anymore. It’s time.”

Lelouch reached out for her, Nunnally staring up at him before slapping her hand against the controls of her wheelchair. It rocketed back, Nunnally teetering on the step onto the porch before she rocked forward. She spun the wheelchair around, listening to Lucille shouting at the ghost. Nunnally was sure that it wouldn’t work, but she was glad for the distraction.

She bumped down onto the porch, Nunnally gritting her teeth as she tried to get the chair to turn tightly. Her wheelchair mechanism whirred unhappily as she tried to complete the move. Nunnally pressed her hand harder against the controls, the wheelchair responding sluggishly. Then, she was suddenly jerked back. Nunnally gasped and twisted in her chair, screaming when she saw Lelouch holding onto the back of her wheelchair.

He didn’t seem to register her scream, Lelouch continuing to smile at her. “There’s something you need to see. You probably won’t understand it, but there’ll be people to explain why I had to do this.”

“I don’t care. Let me go!” She grabbed onto the sides of her wheelchair. She rocked the whole thing back and forth, trying to make the ghost let go or throw herself out of the chair. She wouldn’t be able to escape quickly, but crawling had to be better than allowing herself to be dragged back into the villa.

Nunnally threw her weight forward, reaching for the railing of the porch. She strained to cover the last inches only to be pulled fully into the villa. Nunnally screamed and try to launch herself out of the wheelchair, but the whole apparatus was tipped back. She thumped back against the backrest, Nunnally tilting her head back to look at the ghost.

She quashed the immediate urge to claw at Lelouch’s eyes because it wouldn’t work. There was nothing she could do against the ghost, Nunnally feeling her heart race in her chest. She tried to curl deeper into her wheelchair. “Please…don’t…”

The ghost carefully set her wheelchair back on the level, easily turning it around and starting to push her back into the house. Nunnally twisted around in the chair, peering back towards the entrance.

Kaguya was still trailing after Lelouch, but Lucille had remained by the door. Nunnally was tempted to reach out, but she didn’t dare, not when the ghost’s full attention was on her now. She swallowed and waved to get Lucille’s attention. When she didn’t look her way, Nunnally leaned a little bit further out, openly motioning to the door. “Please, get help.”

She fully expected Lucille to shake her head and look away. After what had happened during the night, Nunnally was sure that Lucille was actually more on the ghost’s side than theirs. It wouldn’t be surprising if Lucille decided to continue helping Lelouch over them.

To her surprise, Lucille gave her a quick nod before she slipped out the door, Nunnally watching her run off into the night.

She sighed and relief and sank back into her wheelchair, clutching at the sides as she was pushed deeper into the villa.


	10. Chapter Nine: Zero

“I have no power over myself,   
and have not had possession of myself”  
 – _Can vei la lauzeta mover_ , Bernart de Ventadorn

* * *

Lelouch stepped into the subterranean chamber, sighing when he saw Zero standing at the center, his cape still slung over the stand. Lelouch shook his head, shifting his hold on the sword belt as he strode over to Zero. He glanced at the sword that he was holding, shaking his head. “It’s not the same, but it’s the best I could find.”

He stepped forward, working with the clasp on the belt. He grumbled when it was slow to unhook, Lelouch biting his lip as he worked the old clasp. When he finally managed to separate the two pieces, he looked up a Zero, not liking the impassive look on his face. Things had started to come back together, so it was strange to see the same indifference again.

Lelouch took a step forward and cupped Zero’s cheek, cherishing the feeling of skin against his palm. This might be the last time he felt real human flesh. Everything else would be covered by fabric and plastic, cold and indifferent. Just what he needed for everything to have the impact that he needed.

The world didn’t need to be saved by a human. It needed a symbol.

He gave Zero a weary smile before dropping his hand away. He looped the belt around Zero’s waist, using the moment as an excuse to press himself against Zero. Lelouch glanced down at the buckle, frowning when it resisted him again. He grumbled under his breath, looking up when he heard Zero chuckle. The sound was enough to settle him, Lelouch leaning against Zero for a moment before stepping back.

He made a face when he looked at the sword. It wasn’t the impressive thing that he had used before, the sword that he had made sure that he had connected to himself. That sword had overly elaborate, everything that the world associated with Britannia, and it was gone. Lelouch had no idea where it could have gone, especially when he had insisted on sleeping with the sword in the same room as him. No one had questioned that decision, especially since they had thought that his knight had just died. Being the most hated man in the world without his guard would make anyone nervous. He was sure that none of the servants would have taken it even if they hated him, they were still too frightened of him to do anything. The only person who would have done it was C.C.

Lelouch shook his head, watching as Zero adjusted the sword by his side. There was no telling what was going on in her head. He had thought that she would be with him. Both she and Suzaku had never wavered after he had presented them with the final plan for Zero Requiem. If she decided to change her mind he thought that she would have done something earlier. Knowing C.C, she would have done something far more drastic than stealing the sword. Trying to sneak Nunnally and Kaguya out was something more like she would do, although the why still eluded him.

She hadn’t betrayed him before. C.C. had been less than helpful at times, but he thought that they had reached an agreement. They had worked together for two years, which had to count for something.

“What changed?” He didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one.

Lelouch sighed and reached for the sword. He drew it out to examine the edge, frowning at the spots of rust that he saw along the blade. He ran his finger along the blade, nodding at the edge that he felt. It might be rusty and ordinary, but it would work. The rust didn’t even matter, he wouldn’t be around long enough to get tetanus, not if Zero’s aim was true.

He returned the sword into the scabbard, letting Zero reset the hang of the sword. Lelouch let him tug on the suit, going back for the cape that was hanging over the stand. Everything should fit right, they had worked over the suit for long enough. The only reason for hesitation would be the unfamiliarity with the whole ensemble. Zero had refused to wear it for too long, not that Lelouch blamed him.

He ran his fingers over the edge of the cape, looking back over at Zero. “Everything is in place.”

The statement was more calming to him than Zero, but Lelouch didn’t think it mattered. He needed to talk. The whole villa had been silent for too long. It was enough to drive him crazy.

“Even with C.C’s interference, things are in place.” Lelouch walked back to where Zero was standing. “Despite the setbacks, things will go as planned. You’re ready, and we have our audience. And…” He paused for a moment, trying to speak around the lump in his throat.

He looked away from Zero, clearing his throat. It took him a moment, Lelouch glad that Zero didn’t move. He didn’t want comfort, not so close to the end. He had almost broken down when C.C. had reached out for him, even with her betrayal.

Despite everything there was still a part of him that still wanted to live.

Lelouch closed his eyes, trying to squash that part down. Everything that he had done had led up to Zero Requiem, there was no changing that. It was what was needed to change the world and pay back what he owed to the people he had hurt.

He opened his eyes, looking at Zero. He didn’t have time to dally, not with C.C. somewhere in the house. He was sure that she would come to her senses before his plan was carried out. She had gone off on her own before, although their disagreement had never been as large. He dug his fingers into the cloak, taking a deep breath. He was sure that C.C. would come back around, she always had before. There would be no use waiting around for her, things had to keep moving.

It felt like there was extreme pressure around him, Lelouch wanting nothing more than to shake himself in the hopes that it would go away. Things had to continue, Lelouch didn’t dare contemplate what would happen if he didn’t carry the plan through. He could only get away with the charade for so long before someone noticed that everything wasn’t like he had pretended it to be.

Lelouch draped the cape over Zero’s shoulders, tugging it into place. He was sure that Zero could handle the cape on his own, but Lelouch found himself clasping the cape into place. He smoothed his hands over Zero’s shoulders, watching as the cape settled into place. “Better.”

He took a step back, examining Zero. “It’s almost perfect, save for one thing.”

Lelouch turned on his heel and walked over to where he had left the mask. He had left Zero with it when he had gone to collect the witnesses from their holding cells. Apparently, Zero had left it for last, not that Lelouch blamed him. The mask could get stuffy, and there was no telling when he would get a break again.

He sighed and picked up the mask, holding it carefully in his hands. Lelouch frowned at the slight discoloration on the side, rubbing his thumb against the plastic. When the stain didn’t come off, Lelouch shook his head. He was willing to bet that C.C. had gotten her hands on it. The grandeur wouldn’t be ruined by a pizza sauce stain, but it was the principle of the thing.

He lifted the mask to look at it in the dim light, turning it from side to side before shaking his head. It wouldn’t matter, he didn’t think that anyone would be able to see it. No one should notice, the spectacle would be focused on him after all. That was the whole point of the affair. All of the world would watch Zero kill the Demon Emperor, and then there would be peace. He wouldn’t have to deal with the strange twisting sensation in his gut that meant that something was horribly wrong. It was time to take care of all the troubles that had sprung up.

Lelouch hadn’t anticipated the turmoil in Britannia when he had defeated Schniezel’s forces. He had thought that everything would be simple once he had the leaders of Britannia and the UFN under his control. That the new Chinese Federation would crumble and start to fall into their old ways was something that he hadn’t thought of. With the control he had exerted over most of the politicians of Britannia, he hadn’t thought that they would start to push back against him. Because of all of that, Zero Requiem had to go through. It was the only way to right all of the problems with Britannia. As soon as it was done, then he could finally have peace.

No, _Britannia_ would finally have peace.

Lelouch shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut when it felt like the room was spinning around him. Everything that was happening didn’t make sense. Lelouch couldn’t begin to pick out where the problem was, it was all a jumble inside his head. There was the downfall of his father, and then all the problems that Emperor Lance had caused with his ideas and the false Zero. But there was also the fight against Schneizel and the near crumbling of the Chinese Federation. That wasn’t the right order, but Lelouch couldn’t place them in any order.

He looked down at the mask, sighing when the pain from his head disappeared. Lelouch nodded to himself, pressing his fingers harder against the sides of the mask. The order didn’t matter, only the end results did. He had to make them matter, he had too many promises riding on that fact.

Lelouch looked up at Zero, swallowing at the steady look that was directed at him. For a moment, he wanted that expression to break and just leave him with the man who would be behind the mask. He wanted his friend back, but it was far too late. He took a deep breath and raised the mask.

It was easier to settle the mask over Zero’s face than to give into temptation. Any excuse to extend his time on earth had to be ignored. Things were moving too fast for him to delay for his own sake alone.

Lelouch let go of the mask, watching as Zero reached up to settle it comfortably into place. He tipped his head with a smile, his eyes lingering on the stain for a moment before he gave in. Lelouch stepped up so he was pressed close to Zero, kissing the mask where the man’s mouth would be. For a moment, he thought he felt Zero lean into the kiss, Lelouch tempted to throw off the mask and forget himself.

He whimpered and stepped back, giving Zero one last look over before nodding to himself. “You’re ready.”

Zero responded with a tip of his head, the posture so familiar that Lelouch had to laugh. He knew he should remind Zero to act more like he had as Zero to convince the world that it was the same person but some part of him didn’t want to be copied. This Zero had to be something new, something that wasn’t Lelouch.

He reached out to pat Zero’s shoulder, only to stop himself. The preparations wouldn’t wait too much longer and he had to get into place. That didn’t stop him from wishing that there had been a chance for a better goodbye than the quick one they’d had in the chamber. Still, there was no changing the past, the only thing he could change was the future.

Lelouch turned on his heel and started for the passage. Behind him, he could hear the echoing foot falls of Zero as the man trailed after him. The sound sent a shiver up his spine, Lelouch’s fingers twitching by his side. He was walking to his death with his executioner trailing after him. He swallowed and focused on moving quickly through the house.

Jeremiah and his advance guard would be waiting for him in the courtyard of the house. They would escort him down the drive to where the parade vehicles would be waiting for him.

The drive to the house was too narrow for the vehicles to maneuver, something that had annoyed Jeremiah. Even though the whole victory parade was a farce, Jeremiah had wanted it to at least look like something the emperor of Britannia would do. According to him, it was bad enough that they had had to take a house abandoned by Britannian nobility, Lelouch should have been living in the Administrative Building or the Imperial Palace at Pendragon. But he’d had no choice but to take the house closest to what remained of Tokyo, all the appropriate options had been destroyed by the FLEIJA.

Besides, between the time it would take to get himself and the prisoners in place and the security sweeps that Jeremiah would insist on, Zero would have plenty of time to get into place. Lelouch had picked out the spot during one of the few walks out into the public that he had allowed himself. He would had preferred to give Zero the chance to see it, but he hadn’t been able to risk it.

He curled his fingers into a fist, holding the tension for a moment before relaxing. Everything was in place, so there was no reason to worry.

Lelouch still found himself slowing down as he walked out of the passage, dragging his feet as he approached the center of the room. He looked around the place, his head titled back to stare at the shelves that rose to the ceiling. There had been plenty of nights spent with Suzaku and C.C. in the safety of the library. All of the servants had been sure that he had just callously thrown aside his knight for his relationship with the strange woman, and that was more than enough for them to leave him alone.

The thought of C.C. brought him to a stop. Of all the people left to him, she was the only one that he had not been able to say a proper goodbye to. They had talked the night before, but that wasn’t enough. He had wanted to say something to her when he had woken up, but she had already disappeared. Lelouch remembered her saying something about a small chapel, or she had gone to speak to the prisoners.

His head started to pound again, Lelouch reaching up to rub his temples. It almost felt like when his geass had gotten stronger, but it wasn’t sinking down to behind his eyes. It remained up towards his forehead, thrumming away until he shook his head and put C.C. out of his mind. It was easier not to think on the confusing disconnects rather than trying to reason them through.

Lelouch sighed and turned his head to check if Zero had followed him up. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the man crouch to pick something off the floor. Lelouch snorted at the mess on the floor, the sound of derision turning into one of interest when Zero lifted up a photo album.

Zero flipped it open, staring at one page before the man shook his head. He turned to set the photo album on the table, Lelouch seeing the cape billow oddly. He heard Zero make an annoyed noise and tug the cape back into a better position before the man turned around.

He nodded at the man, using the moment to gather himself together. It didn’t matter that he was walking willingly to his death, he had to make it look like he had no idea what was coming. The people needed a show, and it was his last task to give them it.

* * *

Julius slammed his foot on the brake when he reached the end of the drive to the villa. He threw the car into park, in the midst of fumbling with the keys when he saw someone rushing to the end of the driveway. Julius yanked the keys out, carelessly dropping them into his pocket as he stepped out of the car.

He frowned when he saw that the caretaker was on her own, the woman leaning partially against the car as she caught her breath.

If Lucille noticed his ire, she didn’t show it. She just breathed deeply a few times before lifting her head. “You need to come with me.”

“Where’s my sister?”

“He has her.” The words sent a cold chill down his spine, Julius staring at Lucille as she pushed away from the car. She shot him a steady look before taking a step back. “If you want to save her, then you have to follow me.”

Julius walked around the car, staring at the woman for a moment before he shook his head. “You were there. Why didn’t you stop him?”

Lucille shook her head, looking at him like he was crazy. The look just made him angrier, his hands clenching into fists. He took another step forward, herding her away from the car. “You just let that thing take them all. Don’t bother trying to deny it, I heard that you left Nunnally in there, just like you left Suzaku and Kaguya. For all I know, you’re going to do the same thing to me. You’re just feeding us all the ghost.”

She snorted in derision, Julius ignoring the sound to reach out and jab her shoulder with his finger. “You probably didn’t want the ghost out of that house. You just called Suzaku and Kaguya in to die.”

He expected her to get angry, not throw her head back and laugh. Julius watched her, his arm dropping back to his side. It wasn’t the reaction that he expected, not when he was sure that he had pushed to the center of the matter. After all, it made the most sense out of everything.

The ghost had always been a problem in the villa, but not enough of one to call in a team of ghost hunters. And, when someone had decided that the villa was unsafe, _she_ had been the one to suggest Suzaku and Kaguya. Lucille had been the one to give them the idea of using Nunnally as bait. He might have been slow to realize it before, but he wasn’t going to allow himself to be led blindly in, or that was what he had thought during his panicked drive out to the villa on the back roads.

Julius took a step back, watching as Lucille calmed down. The woman gave him a wry smile as she flipped her hair back over her shoulder. In the next moment the smile was gone, Lucille looking completely serious. “You think you know what’s going on here, boy? Then tell me why he’s taken all of those people.”

“Because he wants to kill the people who betrayed him.”

“So he’s killing Suzaku?” He thought he heard her laugh, but it was over before he could really listen to the sound. Lucille shook her head and gave him a pitying look. “You thought you had everything figured out.”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“And you’ll leave you sister’s life up to that chance? Because it makes sense?”

Julius wanted to say yes, but Lucille seemed too confident about her answer. He bit his lip, glancing between her and the house.

The longer he stayed outside and debated the facts, the longer the others were in danger. He had planned to stay at the end of the drive until Nunnally had come rushing out. Julius knew that he would have taken his sister home, but everything after that was a hazy plan. Suzaku and Kaguya would have to wait a bit before being rescued, but they were sure to be fine. Ghosts were something that they dealt with all the time, and they were probably figuring out how to sneak away even as he was held up. That still didn’t stop his stomach from twisting, because there was every chance that Lucille was right and he was just wasting what little time they had left.

He looked back at Lucille, watching her carefully before giving in. “No, but what makes your story any better?”

“It’s the truth, not that you’d believe it.”

“Try me.”

The corner of Lucille twitched up into something like a smile before her expression turned serious again. “Come on then. I trust you’ll figure it out before long.”

She turned and started back up the drive before Julius could say anything. He stared at her back for a moment before scurrying to catch up with her. “Wait,” he reached out for her only to have Lucille roll her shoulder away from him. He gritted his teeth and broke into a jog to keep up with her. “What are we going to do when we get in there?”

“What you wanted to do from the start. We’re getting the three of them out.”

Julius grumbled under his breath, but he didn’t bother to ask another question. Lucille didn’t seem to be inclined to answer his question in any way that made sense, and he was getting tired of her half answers. They weren’t helping with any of the plans he was trying to make about rescuing the others. Following Lucille into the house and letting her take the lead didn’t make much sense either. She might have laughed at the idea that she was helping the ghost, but that didn’t mean that he hadn’t been right. She could just be talking to throw him off.

The worst part was that it was working. He kept staring at the house, working through everything he had found out about the Demon Emperor. He had no way of knowing which parts were true or not, and he was sure that he didn’t have the time to parse out the differences. His sister was still in the building, suffering under whatever the Demon Emperor was doing to all of them. The truth would have to wait.

He sped up to match his pace with Lucille, purposefully not looking at the woman. If she wanted to help then she would be giving him more than cryptic clues about what was going on. Julius was tempted to ask her about where the ghost would go, but he was sure that he would get the same quality of answer that she had been giving him before. He scanned the windows of the house, sighing when he couldn’t see any lights.

He had thought that it would be a grand affair, the whole villa lit up as the ghost did whatever it planned to its captives, but the house was dark save for a few lights. Julius assumed that Lucille and the others had left them on instead of the ghost, since all the lights were upstairs. The last time he had talked to Nunnally she had said that they were on their way out. Julius assumed that they had been close to the door when the ghost had found them again.

Julius shook his head, focusing on the matter at hand. They had ticked over onto September twenty-eighth at midnight, which meant that the ghost would probably be reliving his murder, or trying to prevent it. It made sense that he would be trying to thwart it since he had taken Nunnally and Kaguya. The next empress and the chairwoman of the UFN were two of the people who had helped rip Lelouch’s empire to shreds, it made sense that he would make sure to take them first. The two of them had been slated for execution before, and it would be so easy for a ghost to kill the two of them.

He shivered and jogged faster. He thought he heard a derisive sound from Lucille, but he ignored her. She didn’t have any attachment to the two girls, so she had no reason to make an effort to save them, let alone Suzaku. For all he knew, she would be happy if all four of them died just as long as the house was cleared of the ghost. It would be so easy to pretend that it had all just be a fatal mistake with Euphemia so busy with the celebrations that would occupy the rest of the country.

If she wanted to do that, she would have to get rid of him too.

Julius froze in the middle of reaching out for the railing of the porch. He jerked his hand back to his side, shaking as he resisted the urge to turn and take on Lucille. He needed to get to Nunnally, but he couldn’t risk putting the two of them in more danger.

He curled his fingers into a fist, turning on his heel to look at Lucille. There were too many questions that he wanted to ask her, but too many answers that he wouldn’t trust. He didn’t have time to interrogate the woman, which left him only one question to ask.

Julius stared at her for a moment, watching her face carefully. It was discouraging to see that she didn’t seem to be bothered by his indecision, she just seemed impatient to get into the house. He sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the next impatient look that she threw at the front doors in favor of speaking.

“Can I trust you?”

He almost expected the laugh that she gave him, her attention snapping back to him. Lucille eyed him carefully before raising a shoulder in a careless shrug. “You should, but you’re not asking for that, you’re asking for proof. I can’t give you that, you’ll just have to take my word for it.”

It wasn’t the answer that he wanted and something on his face must have given something away. She huffed and pushed past him to climb up onto the porch. Julius expected her to walk into the house and leave him outside, but Lucille paused by the door. She threw him a look over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow. “Think about it this way, if I had been working with the ghost, I could have handed the four of you over at any time.”

She opened the door and stepped through before Julius could come up with an answer. He just watched as Lucille walked into the house like she didn’t have a care in the world, let alone a crazy ghost waiting for the two of them. Julius grumbled under his breath before climbing up the stairs to the front porch.

He had to admit that Lucille had a point. There had been plenty of times that he had been hanging around the villa that she could have sent the ghost at him, even if he had just been outside the place. It wasn’t the best point in her favor, but it would work enough for now. Julius didn’t plan on testing that loyalty for too long, just long enough to find his sister, Kaguya and Suzaku, and get them out of the villa. What she would do afterward wasn’t up to him, the only plan he had was taking the three back to the imperial palace. Further plans on how to get rid of the ghost would have to wait.

Julius hesitated on the porch, staring into the entrance hall. He could see Lucille walking towards the stairs, but he couldn’t bring himself to take the first step into the house. Julius swallowed and leaned forward, fully expecting to see the ghost lurking just out of his line of sight, but the hall was empty of everyone save Lucille. He bounced on the balls of his feet before taking a step in.

He winced, fully expecting the ghost to swoop down on him. Julius reached down into his pocket, fishing around in it before shaking his head. He had given the charm back to Suzaku a day or two ago, something that he was regretting now. Suzaku had given it to him to protect him from Lelouch. Then again, the charm hadn’t protected Suzaku from getting caught by the ghost, so maybe he was better off. Still, that didn’t mean that he wanted to hang around the villa for too much longer.

Julius strode over to where Lucille was surveying the entry hall from the first step of the grand staircase. He winced when she drummed her fingers against the railing, half tempted to reach out and stop her. A sharp glance his way disabused him of the notion, Julius performing his own quick scan of the area.

The entry hall and what he could see of the two hallways were empty, not that he’d really expected it to be so easy. But he hadn’t expected to conduct his own search of the house, not when he could feel the oppressive atmosphere of the place pressing in around him.

He drummed his fingers against the seam of his pants before giving up remaining still. He glanced back over at Lucille. “So, where are they?”

“If I knew, I would have told you.”

“Then how do we find them?”

Lucille opened her mouth to speak to him, probably to be more unhelpful, when there was a scream. Julius flinched at the sound, grabbing for the railing to keep himself steady. He looked around frantically, trying to pinpoint where the sound came from, but it was hard with the echoes. The high ceiling of the hall made it sound like the scream was coming from everywhere.

He tightened his hold on the railing, exchanging a long look with Lucille. For once, the caretaker seemed just as shocked as he was. Julius didn’t know if he preferred that or her usual airs. Julius was sure that he would be more confident if the latter was true. After all, she seemed to know everything about the house.

Lucille licked her lips, her hand slipping from the railing. “That’s not-”

Another scream cut her off, Julius tensing at the sound. The scream echoed around again, the distortion making it hard for Julius to make out if it was anything. It wasn’t until another one came on the heels of the second that Julius realized that it was his name.

“JULIUS!”

“Nunnally!” He pushed away from the railing, sprinting out into the middle of the entrance hall. He turned in place for a moment, trying to figure out where she was.

Even with the distorting echo it sounded like her voice was coming from the hallway on his right. Julius leaned out a moment, making sure before taking off at a run.

He took two steps before Lucille grabbed his arm. Julius spun around to face her, grabbing her fingers and trying to pull them back off of him. Lucille’s hold was stronger than he expected, Julius hissing and turning to look at her. “Let me go.”

She shook her head, looking scared for the first time. It was far too late for that in Julius’ opinion, but at least she was seeing sense. The problem was that he didn’t have the time for her fear now.

He shook his arm, attempting to step forward when she didn’t let go. He couldn’t manage to pull her along after him, Julius grumbling under his breath before he spun to glare at her. “I told you to let go.”

“You’ll die.”

“I don’t care. It’s Nunnally!”

Julius expected another one of her jibes, not for her to just nod and let go of his arm. He stared at her for a moment, confused about what she was letting him do. He didn’t linger long, giving Lucille one last look before dashing off in the direction that he had last heard Nunnally screaming from.

His mind raced as he ran, Julius trying to keep his mind working to keep from thinking too much about what his sister could be going through.

Her shout couldn’t have come from too far back into the house, he wouldn’t have been able to hear it if it was in one of the rooms towards the back. The problem was that he had no idea what was on that side of the house. Julius didn’t have the time to be tearing through the rooms on the left side of the house, not with whatever the ghost was doing to his sister.

Lelouch vi Britannia had been on his way to watch them be executed. Without Zero and then the overwhelming number of Cornelia li Britannia’s counter rebellion, there would be no way to stop him. There was every chance that the ghost would use that to his advantage and continue on the work he thought he had been doing. Killing Nunnally and Kaguya would probably get rid of the last bits of opposition to his mind, even if the two girls that he had weren’t the same people. It was like everything else he had done for the empire, like making sure the deal went through with the Chinese Federation or killing Daniel Cotterill and Lionel Strickland.

It would have about the same effect as the others though. Nunnally and Kaguya weren’t symbols of a rebellion or leaders of the UFN. Killing the two of them would just work against what Lelouch was trying to do.

He shook his head, hating the thought of his sister dying. He was in the villa to prevent that, not to keep the ghost from continuing his fruitless quest to bring back the old empire.

Julius stumbled past a set of grand double doors, about to continue on down the corridor when there was a shriek from behind them.

He froze and turned to stare at the doors, only allowing himself a moment to study them before reaching for the handles. He didn’t know what room was behind the doors, or exactly what he would see, but he wasn’t going to let that or the snarling beasts that had been carved into the door stop him from rescuing his sister. Julius gritted his teeth and threw his weight against the door, the wood groaning in protest before it gave. The hinges creaked as the doors eased open, Julius shoving at the doors until they had swung partially open. He didn’t bother opening the doors all the way, too busy looking out for his sister.

He spotted Nunnally quickly, his sister sprawled out on the floor just in front of the dais, her wheelchair looking like it had been thrown across the large room. Julius didn’t bother to look at anything else in the room, dashing across the open space to get to her faster.

Julius slid the final distance between himself and Nunnally on his knees. He grabbed for his sister’s shoulders, trying to pull her back even as he curled over her protectively. From the quick glance he had taken, she didn’t seem to be harmed, but he had to check to calm his furiously beating heart. He wanted to make sure that he would be safe to move for when he picked her up and carried her back to her wheelchair. Julius hadn’t bothered to look for Kaguya and Suzaku in his first glance, but he would as soon as he got Nunnally out of the room.

He felt Nunnally tense under his hands, Julius leaning forward to try and see her expression. Nunnally kept her face turned away from him, her focus on the dais above them. Julius frowned and looked up, the breathing catching in his throat at the bizarre tableau on the open space above him.

The ghost of Lelouch vi Britannia was standing above them, but the ghost wasn’t attacking. He was slumped forward onto the shoulder of Zero, a rusted sword sticking through his body. Julius shivered at the sight of the old sword nearly completely visible through the ghost. He wanted to turn his head away, but it was impossible, especially when Zero wasn’t translucent. Julius would have been tempted to believe that Zero was a real person, except that he was dressed like the first two Zeros, the suit more impressive than imposing.

He didn’t have much time to take in the sight, Julius flinching back when the ghost wailed and stumbled back from Zero. The sword slid out of him soundlessly, but Julius winced anyway. It might not have been hurt, but the ghost made it sound like it had.

The ghost stumbled away from Zero, staring down at himself as he patted his hands over where the sword had gone. “No. No! It should have worked. It _has_ to work. I can’t…”

The ghost looked out into the room, Julius feeling a cold shiver run down his spine when the ghost looked at him. Julius almost didn’t expect the surprise that crossed the ghost’s face. The two of them had meet once before and Julius had assumed that the rage that he had seen hadn’t just been on a whim.

Lelouch stared at him for a moment more before his gaze jerked up to stare at something on the other side of the room. Julius was tempted to turn around to look, but he couldn’t squander the chance to move away while the ghost was distracted.

He gathered Nunnally close to his chest, tucking her legs into a better position while she looped an arm over his neck. Julius held still while she settled herself, using the chance to glance around at the end of the room he was in.

Nunnally’s wheelchair was to his right, knocked back nearly to the wall. He wouldn’t be able to run to it, but Julius hoped he could get close enough to let Nunnally haul herself up into it. What he would do about the ghost during that time, he didn’t know. He swept his gaze to the other side of the room, sucking in a quick breath when he saw Kaguya slumped against one of the columns. His fingers twitched against Nunnally’s leg and shoulder, Julius momentarily pushing away the need to go and check her over. He could only worry about one person at the time.

A squeeze to his shoulder brought his attention back to his sister. Julius nodded, more to himself than for Nunnally’s sake, before he started to get to his feet. Standing up with Nunnally in his arms was something that he had done for years, but not recently. Julius gritted his teeth and rocked back, clumsily getting to his knees and then easing up onto his feet.

He shifted his hold on Nunnally as soon as he was upright, edging away from the dais just as the ghost stepped down. Julius shivered as Lelouch passed close to him, biting his lip to keep from making a sound. He paused long enough to get a better hold on his sister before continuing to edge for the wall.

Julius was highly aware of the ghost’s movement, but he resisted the urge to glance over. He didn’t want the ghost’s attention on him or Nunnally, not when the two of them were vulnerable. To defend himself, he would have to drop Nunnally, which was something that he didn’t want to do. His sister could easily get hurt while she was dragging herself away from whatever fight would be going on, not to mention the fact that Julius was sure that he would lose the fight entirely.

So far, he seemed to be in luck. The ghost was still shocked by whoever had walked through the open doors, which meant that he could move Nunnally away. The only impediment to that plan was Zero. The man hadn’t stepped down to stop him, but the mask turned to follow his movement.

Julius shivered at the blank expression, moving a little bit faster the longer that Zero stared. The room they were in was longer than it was wide, and he had already been in the center of the room. It should have been an easy task to cross the room, but it was hard to drag his gaze away from Zero’s mask.

He froze at the pained sound that the man made. It was almost hard to tell that the sound had come from Zero, but there was no one else that it could have come from.

Julius sucked in a quick breath, coughing when it came in freezing cold. The cold traveled up his left side, Julius tightening his grip on Nunnally so he wouldn’t be able to drop her. That didn’t stop his hands from shaking or his fingers from going numb. He curled his fingers into the cloth of her blouse, seeking out warmth.

The cold just grew more intense and focused, Julius feeling Nunnally start to shake in his arms. But he didn’t dare to turn around, not when he was so close to making it to safety.

“I understand now.” The words came out as almost a whisper, Julius finding himself shuffling to a stop as Lelouch spoke. Despite his better judgment he turned to look over his shoulder.

Lelouch was standing practically in the middle of the room, an almost worshipful look on his face. Julius shuddered when the ghost smiled at him, not sure how to read the serene smile on the ghost’s face. Lelouch made an elegant gesture with his hand, ending with his fingers pointed towards Julius. “I understand what you were trying to tell me C.C.”

“Do you?”

Julius shifted so he could look towards the doors, his stomach twisting when he saw Lucille there. He had known that she would follow him, but he still wasn’t sure about her. That she was talking to the ghost and that Lelouch knew her was another warning for him.

If Lucille noticed his frantic look at her, she didn’t broadcast it. She just stepped forward until she was standing by Lelouch’s shoulder. She reached out to pull his hand back, the ghost not staring down as her fingers passed through his arm. Julius thought he heard Lelouch whimper, but the ghost’s expression remained the same.

He turned his head to look at Lucille, letting her guide his hand back down to his side. “Zero Requiem…”

“Worked the first time.”

“So why…”

“Don’t ask me. That’s on you. You should have been gone a long time ago.”

“I should have, but there was…” The serene expression was replaced with a serious one. “There was too much to do.”

“Lelouch-”

“There was too much to do. I had to make sure that it worked.”

“It _has_ worked, for one hundred years.”

“It hasn’t. Not since Nunnally died. I couldn’t leave it then, not after everything she had been through. Not after everything _I_ had done.” Lelouch leaned against Lucille for a moment before he pushed her away. “You’ve given me a chance to fix this. I couldn’t figure it out before, it wasn’t like the others. No one was coming through that I could use. And then you brought me this.”

Lelouch gestured at him again, Julius taking a quick step back. His mind worked frantically over what Lelouch had said, but he couldn’t seem to get a good purchase on it. He had known that there had been a reason that Lelouch had been killing people, but he had found it. He had found the reason and it had made sense. Everything that the ghost was saying didn’t make sense, not with everything he had read about the man.

He glanced over at Lucille, expecting to see her trying to restrain the ghost. To his surprise, she looked just as shocked as he felt. She was slow to reach for the ghost as Lelouch stepped forward, the woman almost tipping through him as she moved. The ghost side stepped her easily, Lucille snatching at the trailing bits of cloth and jewels before she stumbled to a stop. Lucille shot Julius a helpless look before turning and running.

Julius leaned forward, about to shout for her to come back when he realized that she wasn’t heading for the door, she was running towards where Kaguya was lolling against the opposite wall. Out of all of them, Kaguya probably knew the most about how to get rid of the ghost. She was their only chance, for the little that she could do. If she hadn’t been able to hold him once Julius doubted that that she would be able to do the job. Still, something was better than nothing. At least she could distract the ghost long enough for them to run out of the room and the villa.

He clutched at Nunnally, backing slowly away even as Lucille tried to shake Kaguya awake. His gaze moved between the two women and the ghost that was advancing towards him.

Lelouch only followed him until he reached the center of the room. The ghost stopped on the carpet that ran up the center of the room, his hand still held out towards Julius. The serene expression on his face had moved into something more sinister, Julius shaking his head as the ghost focused on him. The conversation between the ghost and Lucille hadn’t made any sense, but it was easy enough to figure out that Lelouch wanted him dead.

He could feel Nunnally grabbing at the collar of his shirt, not sure if his sister was trying to urge him faster or getting a better hold on him. He returned the favor by cradling her closer to his body, continuing his slow backwards movement towards Nunnally’s wheelchair, not daring to take his eyes off of Lelouch.

That just seemed to make the ghost’s grin spread wider, the grin turning manic. “You must understand, you’ve seen it. This whole country is slipping and it has to be put right.”

Julius shook his head, the motion not seeming to get through to the ghost. Lelouch kept grinning, holding his hand out like he expected Julius to come to him. “I have to destroy this world to create a new one, and I can’t be there for it. Sacrifices must be made for the sake of the world.”

“No.”

“I have to die for this, even the part that Father created for his own purposes.”

“What?”

Julius didn’t get his answer. Lelouch just gestured over to Zero, Julius pivoting slightly with the motion. The masked man had been standing still the entire time, but the simple motion spurred him into action.

Zero stepped down from the dais, the sword that had hung by his side raised into a ready position. Julius swallowed and took a few more steps back, almost falling backwards in his haste. The near fall jostled Nunnally, Julius barely catching her in time. He partially bent over, the muscles in his back and arms screaming as he held Nunnally just above the ground. Julius cursed under his breath and looked up, watching as the ghost circled around the masked man. He thought he saw Lelouch’s hand trail over Zero’s shoulder, a surprisingly affectionate gesture to the man who had killed him.

Julius didn’t have too long to think over the problem because Zero was closing in on him and Nunnally was wriggling in his arms. Julius glanced between the two of them before deciding to focus on Nunnally. His sister choose that moment to roll herself out of his arms.

Nunnally hit the floor before he could stop her, his sister quickly rolling onto her stomach. She gave him a quick look before pushing herself away from him. Julius took a step forward to catch her, only to have Nunnally haul herself further away. “What are you doing?”

“Letting you run.”

He opened his mouth to point out what was wrong with her plan when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Julius automatically ducked, scrambling on all fours for a moment before he managed to push himself upright. By then, Zero had stepped between him and Nunnally.

Julius reached out for his sister, jerking his hand back when Zero slashed the sword down. He felt the rush of air past his arm, Julius dodging to the side to give himself more space. He shot a quick look at his sister, watching as Zero stepped away from her. The man didn’t seem to be interested in her, all of his focus on Julius. That meant that Nunnally was safe, but she would be safer if he managed to keep Zero distracted long enough to allow her to get to her wheelchair.

He stumbled backwards, watching Zero’s sword carefully in case the man attacked again. So far, the man hadn’t done anything other than make feints. Julius didn’t believe that Zero would just keep playing with him. The man looked professional, like the guards that Julius had seen training in the palace. Like he had seen his mother move when she had practiced with her sword. He licked his lips and glanced around the room. Zero would only toy with him until the man figured out exactly how to attack. At that moment, he had to have a plan.

The problem was that his thoughts were jumping to too many different places, and none of them was a way out. He kept glancing back at Nunnally, tracking her progress to her wheelchair while shooting quick looks over at where Lucille was starting to coax Kaguya to her feet. Despite his better judgement, he found himself looking back at the ghost.

Lelouch was lounging in the one ornate chair that had been left on the dais, looking every bit the evil emperor that the history books had painted him as. He stroked his fingers over the arm of the chair, not seeming to notice that his fingers slipped through the wood everyone once and a while. If anything, Lelouch was concentrated completely on Zero, watching the man move around the room with a hungry look. It was like he wasn’t there at all.

Julius swallowed and dodged to the side as Zero feinted again. The sword swished down close by, but Zero didn’t bother to complete the stroke, the man just staring at him. Julius shivered at the blank expression that the mask forced on the man behind it. He couldn’t work out what the man was thinking, which meant that he couldn’t try to argue his point. Not that it would matter, Zero seemed to be just as insane as the ghost lounging in the chair behind him.

He risked a glance over at Nunnally, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw her hauling herself up into the chair. The chair wobbled a bit, but she clambered up without much of a struggle. She didn’t look over at him, too busy twisting herself into place.

Julius darted to the other side of the room, wanting to give Nunnally the chance to get out of the room. He didn’t want to risk his sister on one of Zero’s swings, even if the man seemed to have perfect control of his sword. The only thing that it meant was that the masked man had practiced, which meant that he couldn’t be the recent Zero. For one, Julius couldn’t imagine the man being awake at this hour and two, the sword that Zero carried was ceremonial, the men and women who had worn the mask tended to prefer guns to the antiquated sword.

He yelped as the sword came at him again, barely moving in time to avoid the thrust at him. The blade passed between his arm and his side, cutting his clothes.

Julius stumbled back, taking a moment to peer down at the cut. The blade had nicked his skin, a thin bead of blood rising. He glanced up at the sword, staring at the rust along the blade. If he made it through this, he would have to get himself checked out. He didn’t want to survive a vicious attack by two ghosts only to die because of the rust. Julius hissed and clamped a hand over the wound, continuing to back towards where C.C. was chivying Kaguya to her feet.

The woman was swaying on her feet with a panicked look on her face. Julius didn’t know if she was shaking off the ghost’s influence or the quick turn of events was too much for her. Julius didn’t blame her for that, he was still struggling to come to terms with why the ghost would want anything to do with him. Or why Zero would listen to Lelouch in the first place.

The sound of a boot scraping across the floor was the only warning he got before Zero made another lunge at him. Julius didn’t have time to move, he could just lift up his hands and grab onto Zero’s wrists.

He managed to stop the motion, Julius breathing out a quick sigh of relief, but it didn’t last long. Zero strained against him for a moment before he started to move forward again, Julius’ feet sliding against the floor. He couldn’t stop his movement backward and keep the sword from slashing down into his shoulder, so he put what little resistance he could put up towards the latter, locking his elbows to keep the sword from coming down on him.

Julius gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms burning as he was shoved back. His heel knocked against something solid a moment before he was shoved backward against the wall. The shock unlocked his elbows, Julius gasping when the sword inched further down. He braced himself against the wall, using the fact that he more leverage to push the sword away from him. He planted his back foot against the wall and shoved.

To his surprise, it was enough to make Zero stumble back. It was only a few steps, but it was better than what Julius had expected.

He stared at Zero for a moment before taking the chance to lunge forward while the man was still recovering. He could see Zero reaching out for him, but he was confident that he would be able to push through the ghost or dodge around it. He might not have known too much about ghosts, but he was sure that it took most of the man’s concentration to just hold the sword, which had to be real from the slight cut it had made on Julius’ side.

Julius ducked his shoulder to shove it in and through Zero, surprised when it hit solid flesh instead of passing through. He didn’t have too long to think on it before he was shoved backwards, Julius grunting when he hit the wall. He didn’t pay any attention to the wall, not when there was something much more confounding in front of him.

There was no reason for Zero to be real, not with the uniform that he was wearing. The only Zero was back in the Imperial Palace, the rest were gone, an unknown number resting easily in their graves or maybe retired to far corners of the former empire. Worse still, Lucille was just to one side, still trying to lead Kaguya away. She was the only one that he could think of that would try to help the ghost. Apparently there was one fact that he missed, something that would end up killing him because he had ignored it.

He looked the man up and down, trying to see if he had just imagined it, if he had been wrong about the nature of ghosts. He had to be wrong, because there was no other explanation for it. The only thing he could see was an imposing man with a sword and a piece of paper that had fluttered to the ground between them. Julius’ eyes lingered on the paper, catching words and numbers written on it in a neat hand, but he couldn’t focus on them enough to read it. Besides, a paper wouldn’t help him against a sword, it would just delay the inevitable.

Julius pressed his hands against the wall, feeling them shake. He couldn’t run any longer, but at least Nunnally would be getting out of the room alive.

He dragged his gaze back to his sister, shaking his head as she stopped in the center of the room. Julius didn’t dare move, just in case Zero saw it as the start to an attack. As it was, Zero was pulling himself back together, bringing his sword up again. Julius saw a slight tremor in Zero’s hands, but he didn’t want to linger on it long.

Nunnally reached out for him, Julius purposely averting his gaze. He didn’t want his sister to watch him die, but he was too much of a coward to hold her gaze while Zero prepared to attack him. He raised his eyes to the stained glass windows, scanning over their scenes of knights and chivalry.

Movement right behind Zero drew his attention back down to the masked man. Lelouch had come down from his throne, the ghost lingering behind Zero’s shoulder. The ghost grinned at him, reaching around Zero to drag his fingers down the side of Zero’s mask. To Julius surprise, Zero leaned into the motion, the twisted show of affection making his stomach churn.

Lelouch’s fingers lingered on the side of Zero’s mask for a moment before the ghost lifted them away. Julius thought he saw red streaks of blood left behind on the mask before they faded away, leaving dark stains in their place.

Julius pressed a hand to his mouth, biting his lip as his stomach turned. It was enough that he could see the blood that coated Lelouch’s robes when the ghost moved around Zero, but he didn’t need to see more blood being leaked all over the uniform as the ghost continued to drag its fingers over Zero.

To his surprise, blood didn’t appear everywhere that the ghost touched Zero, the uniform staying clean. It wasn’t until Lelouch practically reached through Zero, that the blood started appearing on the man again. A smear of it appeared where Lelouch’s hand had moved through Zero’s side on its way to curl over Zero’s hip. Julius watched the blood bloom, the smear running up from the center of the jacket and onto Zero’s right arm, down to where his hand was holding the sword. The blood stayed bright on Zero’s glove, Lelouch curling his fingers around the man’s fist. The simple support stopped Zero’s hand from shaking, the sword pointing steadily at Julius’ chest.

Lelouch nodded slowly before lowering his hand, Zero’s arm moving with him until the sword was pointed at Julius’ stomach. Julius sucked in his stomach, looking between Zero’s emotionless mask and the point of the sword. Lelouch didn’t seem to notice his shifting, the ghost seemed to be staring right through him at something no one else could see. The ghost’s fingers shifted slightly, his touch becoming lighter.

“There. Now we can make everything right. I’ve lived out the lie, just like I promised.” Julius thought he saw Zero draw in a deep breath at that, the shaking returning. Lelouch didn’t seem to notice, his gaze on that far away place. “And now it’s up to you.”

The ghost took a step back, drifting silently off to the side with a serene smile on his face. Julius stared at the ghost in horror, wishing that that there was a way around the sword. All he could do was look at the blank mask of his executioner and feel the sturdy wood of the wall behind him.

“It’s time.”

The two words sent a shiver down his spine, Julius swallowing and shaking his head. “No, please.”

Zero didn’t seem to hear, the man drawing back the sword just far enough to readjust his arm. Julius curled his fingers against the wall, glancing around at the three horrified bystanders.

Kaguya was standing in place, but Lucille had pushed away from her and was rushing towards the ghost. Nunnally was doing the same, steering her wheelchair over towards Zero.

Their voices seemed to come from far away, the sounds in the room losing to the rushing in Julius’ ears. It was hard to hear anything over the sound, especially when it changed into the sounds of the wind and cicadas. The change was almost calming, Julius feeling his heart slow its frantic pace. Wherever he was, it was safe, nothing would happen to him there. There was nothing but peace. Wind, cicadas and the sound of oncoming planes.

“Julius!” He jumped when his sister called his name, trading the sound of a far away summer for the panic that was going on behind Zero.

Nunnally was just behind Zero, reaching out for the man’s cape and grabbing a hold. She wrapped the fabric around her hand and gave it a hard tug. It did nothing, but Zero was still hesitating from striking the final blow. Nunnally didn’t seem to notice, she just slapped her hand against the controls on her wheelchair hard enough that Julius heard it. Her wheelchair jerked, but didn’t go back, not that his sister seemed to notice. She was too busy tugging on the cape with a fierce look on her face. “You get away from him!”

The pulls made Zero rock back, the careful poise that he had falling apart in the face of the sharp tug on his cape. Julius saw Zero reach up with his free hand, Julius lunging forward before he could really think about what he was doing. All he knew was that Zero was going to hurt his sister, and that he wouldn’t let it happen.

He felt more than heard Zero grunt, Julius more surprised by the fact that the man went tumbling over with him. Julius yelped as they hit the ground, feeling himself land against something soft and solid before he rolled off to the side. He thought he heard something rip but that was put out of his mind when he felt something kick his leg.

Julius reached down to check his leg, freezing at the flash of light on the sword. It was lying close to his leg, but it was closer to where Zero had fallen. He could see the man’s hand twitching on the ground, the only warning his got before Zero rolled to the side, leaving his cape on the floor. The man snatched up the sword and had a knee pressed against Julius’ stomach before he could move.

He felt the air rush out of him, the pressure quickly disappearing as Zero stood up. The sword was still leveled at his chest, Julius staring up at it as he heard Nunnally scream from somewhere off to his left. “No!”

The sound seemed enough to arrest Zero again, the man jerking to a stop. The man stayed there for a moment before shaking his head. Zero readjusted himself, his fingers tightening around the hilt of the rusty sword as he stabbed downward.

“Suzaku!”

The name stopped the sword just above Julius’ chest. Julius gasped out the breath that he had been holding, not able to take his eyes away from the sword so close to him. He waited for Zero to shake off whatever stopped him, but the man remained frozen.

Julius saw something move out of the corner of his eye, turning his head to watch as Lucille came around. She didn’t come to stand by him, but she hovered close to Zero’s side. Lucille leaned out around, probably to try and catch Zero’s eye through the mask. “Don’t you dare, Suzaku Kururugi. And you,” she pivoted around to where Julius assumed that the ghost was, “this is over.”

“C.C-”

“It’s over!”

Julius wanted to tip his head back, but he couldn’t kept his gaze away from Zero for too long, not when the sword was still pointed at him. Julius swallowed and looked back up at Zero, his mind slowly clicking back into motion.

Lucille had called him Suzaku.

For all he knew, it was another one of Lucille’s lies. But, for some reason, this one felt right.

He pushed himself up to his elbows, staring up at Zero. The man was still frozen in place, like he had been since Lucille had called out for him. Zero was shaking now, so much so that Julius was sure that the sword would shake out of Zero’s hand and run him through anyway.

Julius swallowed and scooted himself forward, careful to avoid the shaking blade. He twisted himself sideways to come up under the blade, reaching out tentatively to grab onto Zero’s wrist. When Zero didn’t resist, Julius rocked up onto his knees, grabbing onto Zero’s other arm.

He froze there for a while, watching Zero carefully before getting to his feet. Zero didn’t move the entire time, the mask focused on where he had been lying on the floor. For a moment, Julius had the ridiculous urge to reach up and rest his hand against the right side of Zero’s mask, right where the lines of discoloration crossed from the black plastic of the mask to the deep blue of the front. He had already lifted his hand from Zero’s arm before he realized what he was doing. Julius shook his head, pushing the notion out of his head in favor of reaching around the mask.

There was every chance that Zero was still a ghost, even with his strange solidity. For all he knew, he would take off the mask and there would be nothing behind it. That’s what Zero was supposed to be, after all, nothing but a symbol. Of course, that idea was silly, just as silly as Zero showing up inside the Aries Villa. But Julius still couldn’t stop himself. Lucille had called him Suzaku, so he needed to know.

He ran his fingers over the back of the mask, curling them over the clasp he found. It gave easily, Julius surprised that it did after so many years tucked away in a forgotten place. His fingers brushed against hair, Julius yanking his hand back before he could stop himself. He let go of Zero’s other wrist so he could place both hands on the mask. Julius took a deep breath before lifting the helmet free.

He stared down at the brown curls on the top of the man’s head, dropping the mask to the floor a moment later. Julius barely heard the dull thunk it made with it fell, he was too busy cupping his hands around the man’s cheeks so he could tip the man’s head up. It didn’t take too much effort to get Zero to look at him, Julius staring into unfocused green eyes as his stomach sank.

For once Lucille had been telling the truth, and he didn’t like it. Of all the things to have been truthful about, he wished that it had been something else.

He let his hands drop to the man’s shoulders, shaking him frantically. “Suzaku? Suzaku, please, answer me!”


	11. Chapter Ten: Requiem

“…for ye shall slay with that sword the best friend that ye have, and the man ye love most in the world, and that sword shall be your destruction.”   
– _Le Morte D’Arthur_ , Sir Thomas Malory

* * *

It felt like the blood was on him. It didn’t matter that he had fabric between him and Lelouch, it felt like the blood was sinking into his pores, joining the blood left behind by his father and Euphemia. He was soaked in the stuff. He shivered, but held still. He needed to be still until Nunnally had taken control of the crowd. Zero couldn’t be seen to be showing remorse.

Zero wasn’t a person, he was a symbol.

Zero would be the one who helped lead the world into a new era.

Suzaku Kururugi was dead.

That didn’t mean that he couldn’t forget the feeling of Lelouch’s body slumped against him or Lelouch’s fingers dragging over his face. Part of his vision was obscured by the blood that Lelouch had left on the mask.

He couldn’t help himself from reaching up to touch it, knowing that the people wouldn’t care. Their focus was on Cornelia, her rebellion, and the body of their fallen emperor. Someone would take control of the situation and then he would go down and explain himself in the best imitation of Lelouch’s voice. Or maybe he shouldn’t. Lelouch’s Zero was dead and it was time for him to become his own version of the symbol. He could be a Zero not soaked in blood.

He stared at his hand and made a face, glad that no one could see it. But it was hard to do anything else when he was staring at Lelouch’s blood on his fingers. He was tempted to just wipe it off on his suit, because he wouldn’t be wearing it again, at least not _this_ specific one, but he didn’t want to get the suit bloodier.

He didn’t know how long he would be stuck in the suit while Cornelia and Schneizel attempted to sort out the situation. He would stand by and let them talk it over, because there was no way that he would be able to stop them. But he would draw the line if they wanted to take the power away from Nunnally. It would be the first and last time that Zero used his power. After that, he would do exactly what Lelouch had wanted, just watch the flow of the world and help them keep the peace that so much blood had been spilled for.

He looked away from his bloody fingers, surprised when he found himself staring up at Lelouch. He tried to start away, but he found that he couldn’t move, not that he wanted to. He might have killed Lelouch barely a moment ago, but he still ached from it. Lelouch was his friend, had been his friend for seven years. That had to count for something.

He found himself leaning into the touch, closing his eyes when Lelouch stroked a hand over his cheek and into his hair. He thought he heard Lelouch laugh, squeezing his eyes more tightly shut. If Lelouch was a dream, he didn’t want to wake up from it. The years between Lelouch’s death and the slow turn of the world had just made the pain dimmer. It would flare back up once and a while, like when he would dream.

He hadn’t touched Refrain in years, not since the past had lost its punch. Not since the fourth year, when he had spent the whole time drowning in blood.

He let himself be caressed, relaxing into the touch. It was almost perfect, just what he needed after such a long day. It had felt like he hadn’t been able to breathe for the past few hours. He didn’t know what was worse, the pain that radiated through his body after years of misuse or the moments when he thought he was slipping away only to be jerked back to life. He was just glad that Nunnally, Alain or any of the children had never been around for any of those incidents. It had always ben C.C. or Lelouch when it had happened. He wasn’t sure if it was better than being alone, but it meant a hand to hold.

It didn’t matter that Lelouch had been dead for a while, it had just been nice to feel the familiar cold press of fingers around his own during the worst moments. They were warm now, but that didn’t matter. The pain was gone and he would get some sleep while he could. Lelouch wouldn’t mind. Out of everyone, Lelouch would understand the need to rest.

He let his head loll, enjoying the contact. He didn’t know how long that he got to rest, but it barely felt like enough. It never felt like enough anymore. It was almost enough to make him want to ignore the tugs on him, or the insistent shaking. He was always shaking now and it was hard to tell the difference between when it was just him or it was someone else. He let his eyes flutter shut, fully expecting the jolt that came after.

_“Come back to me, Suzaku Kururugi.”_

_“Live!”_

The command made his heart jolt like it always had. Except this time it was different; it wasn’t like being dragged away from sleep, it was more like jolting awake. Neither was pleasant, but he preferred the latter, especially when he was waking up and feeling like he was eighteen again. There was a sword in his head and promises of everything made right. The familiar cold was back, which meant that Lelouch was back by his side, but that would only make it worse.

They had come back to fix everything, and he would lose everything again.

The shaking started again, as did the blood dripping down the side of the mask. The whole room was dark tinged blue, with dark splotches where Lelouch had dragged his fingers down the mask. The remains of the last kiss that Lelouch hadn’t allowed himself, the one that he had desperately wanted to have. After everything, taking one last thing for themselves couldn’t hurt.

The fingers were back on his face, but they were warm again. Living like the friend he was going to kill.

“Suzaku? Suzaku, please, answer me!”

The words seemed to come from far away, just like the orders that had filtered in from around him. He had thought he had heard C.C, but that would have been impossible. The woman had disappeared from the villa after she had said her goodbyes in the morning. He didn’t blame her for it. If there had been any other way, he would have ducked out too. But there had been too many promises twisted around each other, too much blood.

The warm fingers on his face disappeared, replaced by a hazy face. He almost recognized the face, but he had thought she would be far away. All of the prisoners were in a different place, the only place that could be considered a secure jail after the administrative building had been destroyed by the FLEIJA. She should have been there, or secured for the parade through the streets of Tokyo. She should have been safe.

His stomach twisted as he reached out for her, dragging his fingers through her hair before his hand dropped back down. He could see droplets of bright red blood in her black hair. He swallowed and tasted bile in the back of his throat. Out of everyone, he had wanted to keep her safe. He had promised his mother that when they had been back in the shrine, when he had watched her run through the gardens.

She was like them, his mother had said, she could see the things that slipped in and out through the dark spaces of the world. With the right training, she could be as helpful as they were. There were dead who hadn’t been taken care of, dead who didn’t go to their rest and it was their job to make sure that they got what they needed. When they did that, both living and the dead would be at peace. Everything would be in balance then.

If he closed his eyes, he could still see Lelouch’s body crumpled at the base of his grand float. He couldn’t imagine how anyone who had died like that would be at peace. The world might have been fooled, but Lelouch had always been good at pretending.

“Suzaku?” She smoothed his bangs back from his face. “Suzaku, talk to me.”

He opened his mouth to speak, shaking his head when he realized that nothing he said would help her. She shouldn’t have been there according to Lelouch’s plans. His mask shouldn’t have been off. He rocked back on his feet, reaching for the mask that had been dropped down onto the floor.

What he wanted to say was that he was sorry, or that she should go back to where it was safe. Instead, he found the worst possible answer tripping off his tongue. “Suzaku Kururugi is dead.”

He thought he heard her whimper, but the sound was quickly muffled. She grabbed onto his shoulders and gave him a hard shake. “Don’t let him win, Suzaku. Don’t you dare let him win!”

He shook his head, leaning back until she let go of him. He had already spent too much time outside the mask. It might have helped her see him one last time, but that was all he could let her have. He turned away from her, hesitating in his search for his mask.

There was another promise there, made to his mother or her mother, the order was hazy. He knew that he had promised to look after her, to keep her safe. It was another in the mess of promises that had tangled around them, but he wouldn’t be able to keep that one. What he had promised Lelouch was more important. The fate of the world was more important than his cousin.

Besides, she could take care of herself, he had seen her do it. She had been trained by his mother. She would be more than enough to keep the business going, and more than enough to keep herself safe. She wouldn’t have to worry about Lelouch and the Aries Villa, he would have that taken care of.

He reached out for the mask, turning his head when he heard someone start saying his name. His eyes widened when he saw Lelouch kneeling on the ground, looking shocked to see him. He wanted to reach out for him, but it was impossible. Lelouch would be dead in a few minutes, and he would be dead as soon as he put the mask back on. That didn’t stop him from wanting to reach out and hold Lelouch close for a moment longer, the embrace when he had run his best friend through had been too brief and he needed more to get him through the years.

He turned his gaze away, reaching out for the mask that was resting on the floor. He had barely touched the mask before he jerked his hand back, breathing heavily as he stared at the figure standing up behind it.

It was Lelouch, there was no question about that. It was the Lelouch that he recognized from seven years of knowing him and all of the research that he had done. The figure was wearing the clothes that Lelouch had died in, the white robes of the ninety-ninth Emperor of Britannia. The bloodstain that covered most of his stomach was stark against the white, some of the blood dripping off the end of the belt and onto the floor. He looked down at the floor, expecting to see a puddle forming, but there was nothing. Cautiously, he reached out to touch the floor where the puddle should be, his fingers coming away dry.

He lifted his hands away, starting back when he saw blood on the tips of his fingers. It disappeared quickly, almost fast enough that he could think that he was imagining things. He planted his hand on the ground, looking between the figure in white and the other man that was kneeling on the ground close to him. He shook his head, scrambling away from them at all fours. “No.” When the two of them moved forward, he held out his hand, hoping to keep the two of them at bay. “Keep back.”

“Suzaku…”

He didn’t notice which one had said his name, he was too busy staring at the glove that was on his hand. He breathed out a shaky breath, holding up his other hand and looking between the two of them.

He didn’t remember wearing gloves, he had been wearing comfortable clothes. He and Kaguya had been planning on staying up all night if they had to, anything to catch the ghost of the Demon Emperor. He remembered searching through the house for the ghost, because someone hadn’t been there. Then Julius had come in, and been taken by Lelouch, or had he.

Suzaku reached up to press a hand against his head, feeling a headache coming on. It was hard to think through the oncoming pain, and it was worse because of the two set of memories. He had been getting ready to catch Lelouch, and he had been getting ready to kill his best friend. He dug his fingers into his forehead, putting pressure as he tried to untangle the different threads. It was hard, especially when his mind kept jerking from one story to another, to the point where he didn’t know where he ended and the other began.

He heard someone move towards him, Suzaku flinching back as someone touched his shoulder. When the hand remained in place, he looked up. “L-Lelouch?”

The look of shock on the man’s face told him all he needed to know, but the twisting, changing memories made him need to check. Suzaku reached up to touch the hand on his shoulder, slipping one finger underneath the wrist to check for a pulse. He breathed out a sigh of relief, rocking forward until he felt his head knock against a solid shoulder. He reached up with a shaky hand to grab the man’s other shoulder, holding him in place as he breathed in and out.

“Not Lelouch, Julius.” It took him a moment to dredge up the name, but once it came there was a flood of more information. He swallowed and closed his eyes. “You’re warm, so you can’t be Lelouch.”

He felt Julius tense just before the hand on his shoulder squeezed tighter. Suzaku just let him cling, taking deep breaths as he tried to sort himself out. Having someone holding onto him made it easier, it grounded him. Once he wasn’t drifting, it was easier to start to tug apart the two strands of tangled memories. It wasn’t like being possessed, there was no separate conscious, just a string of different memories and another round of choices that he would have never considered.

He let out a breath and glanced over at the mask. Suzaku was relieved that it was resting face down, he didn’t want to see the front and the bloodstains. Suzaku swallowed and let go of Julius, throwing a quick glance over at Lelouch.

The ghost hadn’t moved. In fact, the ghost looked more confused than serene now. Lelouch took a step forward, stopping himself short and lowering his gaze. Suzaku followed the ghost’s gaze to the mask on the floor, watching as Lelouch reached out to touch it only to stop short. The ghost’s fingers curled towards his palm before Lelouch flickered out of sight.

Suzaku heard Julius gasp, but he ignored the sound. He pulled himself over to the mask, hesitating before picking it up and pulling it into his lap.

It was almost automatic to cradle the mask, Suzaku careful to keep his fingers far away from the old bloodstains. He didn’t know what touching them would do, especially while he was still hovering between two lifetimes of memories. He didn’t want to get caught back in the past Suzaku’s memories, not when they were ricocheting between killing Lelouch and Suzaku’s own death.

Suzaku took a deep breath, looking over at his cousin. She looked as shaken as he felt, not that he blamed her. He didn’t know how Lelouch had gotten her down to the great hall of the Aries Villa, but he doubted that it had been a simple matter. After all, it had taken some strange kind of possession to get him to follow after Lelouch and ready to kill Julius. Or had he been trying to kill Lelouch?

He gave his head a hard shake. He didn’t have time to start wandering back into why he had been ready to kill or the complicated reasons behind why Zero Requiem had to go off without a hitch. What he needed to focus on was the here and now so he could figure out what they could do with the ghost. After all, that’s why they had been called out into the villa in the first place.

He turned the mask over carefully, just staring at it as he let himself drift. It took far more effort than he should have to keep himself from sinking back into the mindset of the Suzaku from one hundred years ago. Suzaku gritted his teeth and focused on the mask again.

The Demon Emperor’s ghost had disappeared again, which meant that they would have to track him down. Suzaku wasn’t up for the walk down to the tombs in the chamber under the library, but the mask and suit could work just as well. After all, they were both covered with Lelouch’s blood and tied to his death. Suzaku just had to hope that the event would be strong enough to have left an imprint on the two of them.

Suzaku sighed and let his head rock forward until his chin hit his chest. It was all too easy to block out the sounds of the others clamoring, he would talk to them later. He wanted to take care of Lelouch before the ghost did anything else. The ghost might have temporarily given up on his plans for Zero Requiem, but that didn’t mean that the ghost had given up completely. Lelouch could come back at any time, and Suzaku would have preferred to have everything ready.

“Suzaku?”

He leaned back on his hands, turning to look at the rest of the group. Nunnally and Julius looked like they were still in shock over what happened. Kaguya and Lucille were the only ones that seemed to be alert and ready for action, not that Suzaku was surprised. He and Kaguya had dealt with possessed people before, it had just never been the two of them. And Lucille…Suzaku wasn’t sure about everything that Lucille had seen, but he was sure that this was tiny in comparison.

He met his cousin’s gaze and gave her a shrug, not willing to talk about his failure. If he couldn’t track the ghost, then they would have to risk using bait again, and the only one that the ghost would come after was Julius. Suzaku didn’t know if the ghost considered him gotten or something still to be acquired, leaving Julius on his own.

Suzaku looked away as Kaguya walked over to him, his fingers closing around the spikes on the sides of the mask. He kept his voice down as he spoke, curling in on himself so Julius and Nunnally wouldn’t be able to hear him. “I don’t know. He was here but…I just can’t get to him.”

“I don’t want you to.”

He shook his head. “No. We _need_ to get to him.” Suzaku checked over his shoulder at where Julius was now starting to move towards his sister. “He wants to kill Julius.”

“Why? What has Julius done to gain his attention?” Kaguya glanced back at the man before kneeling beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder. “Is it something he wrote?”

Suzaku shook his head. He couldn’t begin to explain why Julius deserved to be killed, because it was all based on what Lelouch had done. To tell her that would mean tearing down one hundred years of lies that had kept the world at peace. Suzaku didn’t think that he could do that, not when the other Suzaku had dedicated years of his life to that same peace.

He shifted his fingers around the spikes, twisting the mask so he could stare at the front. His gaze strayed to the bloodstains on one side, tempted to touch them for the clue that they could give him. Suzaku let his fingers hover over the stains, half sure that he could feel Lelouch’s fingers dragging over his cheek, leaving the lines of blood behind. He shivered, curling his fingers around the spikes again. It was safer there, he wouldn’t have to relive those horrible moments at the end of Lelouch’s life. But it was hard to keep them away, they seemed to swirl around the whole villa. Suzaku was sure that they had been there the entire time, he just hadn’t known what to look for. It was hard to look away now. The whole villa was soaked in that afternoon in Tokyo.

Suzaku felt bile rise in his throat, quickly swallowing it down. He would just have to keep pushing, because there were bound to be places where that feeling was stronger. _That_ was where they would find Lelouch.

He got to his feet, smiling when Kaguya grabbed his arm. He allowed himself to lean on his cousin as he looked around. The great hall was the last place that they had seen Lelouch, so it would be the best place to start tracking him from. Suzaku wanted to close his eyes, but thought better of it when Kaguya squeezed his arm. He didn’t want to her think that he was slipping off again. Suzaku glanced back at where the sword was still on the floor, tempted to jog over and kick the damn thing across the room. Throwing the mask across the room seemed like just as good of an idea, especially since he was sure that he could see the other Suzaku staring at him through it.

He fingers slipped over the mask, Suzaku quickly adjusting his grip. The mask might be nothing but pain, blood and anguish, but it was important. It was important to the world, a symbol of freedom and justice, and it was important to Lelouch. The man had built up an entire story and had let himself die to keep the lie going. A lie of peace that had let the world go on. It was no wonder that Lelouch was so protective of it, to the point where he would kill for it.

Suzaku rubbed his thumb along the curve of one of the spikes, slowing the motion the longer he stared at it. The more he concentrated on the mask, the more he could start feeling something.

The whole villa was filled with the presence of Lelouch, but there was something different about the mask. He turned it over in his hands, ignoring the snippets of memory that tried to intrude upon of him. Lelouch was everywhere, but he was especially there, which made all the sense in the world. Lelouch had poured everything into Zero, so he had left a bit of himself behind on the mask.

He breathed out slowly, turning to look at Kaguya. His cousin still looked like she was in shock, probably watching to see if he would slip off again. From the way she was looking at him, she probably thought that he had gone off again. Suzaku swallowed and tucked the mask under his arm, wanting it out of the way as he spoke to Kaguya. He didn’t need it staring at them.

“Kaguya.” The sound of her name startled her, Suzaku feeling her hand tighten on his arm before she let go. He waited for her to make a sound to show that she was listening before speaking up. “I think I’ve figured it out.”

His cousin nodded and started guiding him towards the doors out into the hallway. “We’ll work it out. Let’s just get out of here before he comes back.”

Kaguya threw a glance over her shoulder, Suzaku mimicking her. Julius and Nunnally seemed to have gotten themselves together. They were clinging to each other now, Nunnally keeping a tight hold on Julius no matter where he went around her. Suzaku resisted the urge to go back to them, to stick close to Julius’ side; it was where he belonged after all.

He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on the current problem. Kaguya was still dragging him towards the door, her voice dropping lower as she continue to talk. “You and I can talk about what we need to do once we’re out of here. I’m not staying here a moment longer, not after that. I think Nunnally will let us stay in the palace. If you have an idea, then it won’t take us long. Then we’ll be back to Japan and we’ll never have to see this damn place again.”

Suzaku shook his head, pulling away from his cousin. It was slightly worrying that her first action was to step back between him and the sword. Then again, he didn’t blame her for it. For all she knew, he was dropping back into whatever Lelouch had done to him.

_“Come back to me, Suzaku Kururugi.”_

He shook his head, pushing the command to the side. He didn’t need Lelouch’s voice rattling around in his head, tempting him with the other solution. As far as he could see, there was only one solution.

“Suzaku,” Kaguya reached out for him, Suzaku careful to step out of the way.

He took a step back, not sure if he was managing to convince her of his intentions. He was not going to get lost again. Suzaku tightened his hold on the mask before holding it out. Kaguya shrunk back, glancing between him and the mask. He shook his head when she reached out to touch it, instead wiggling the mask slightly. “This is what we’ve been looking for. Lelouch can’t solve the problem he stayed behind for and we can’t leave him or he’ll keep coming back.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“He can’t save the world from here.”

Kaguya sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. She glanced around the room before nodding. “So he’s here to keep his empire going.”

Suzaku made an exasperated sound, but he didn’t bother to correct her. The world still needed the Demon Emperor, or at least the threat of it. Emperor Lance had only been held back by the way the rest of the world had bristled at what he had done. The world needed the lie because, without it, they wouldn’t be able to hold the peace. Suzaku didn’t have his finger against the pulse of the world like Lelouch had or Julius did, but he knew for a fact that the peace was saving people, which was far better than the wars that could have followed the death of the Demon Emperor.

He shook his head, holding out the mask again. “It’s got his blood on it.”

Kaguya hummed as she stared at the mask, reaching out to touch the clean side. It was a brief touch, Kaguya jerking her hand back and rubbing at her fingers. His cousin nodded to herself, before taking and extra step back. “We’ll take it with us, take care of it down the driveway. We’ll come back in the morning and do a sweep.”

“No.”

“We’re not staying here!” Kaguya’s voice echoed around the hall, Suzaku flinching at the volume. Kaguya didn’t seem to notice, she just leaned in close, reaching out to poke Suzaku’s chest. “I lost you once and I’m not having that happen again. Now, we’re walking out of here and finishing this up. We still have you to take care of, whatever that ghost did to you before we get back. I’m not risking anything.”

Suzaku reached out to grab her wrist, holding it gently. He shook his head, opening his mouth to speak when he felt a cold chill run up his spine. He sighed and let go of his cousin. “I’m not asking you to risk anything, because it isn’t a risk. I _know_ it will work. Won’t it, Lelouch?”

He turned around to face the ghost, watching Lelouch flicker. Suzaku almost expected Lelouch to disappear entirely, but the ghost only blinked out for a moment. Then he was back, keeping the distance between the two of them. The ghost looked less like the emperor that Suzaku had been seeing all night and more like the times that Lelouch had been trying to act like Julius.

Suzaku crushed the urge to walk over to him. For all he knew, Lelouch would try and draw him back into a trap. He doubted that the ghost would allow himself to be beaten so easily after years of working towards his goal.

He offered Lelouch a smile, watching as the ghost looked away from him. It was a strange retreat, but one that encouraged him. Lelouch wasn’t ordering him to finish the job by killing either him or Julius, which had to mean that it had calmed down. It was the perfect time to move.

“Lelouch.” The ghost flinched at the sound of his name. Suzaku paused long enough to see Lelouch glance up, watching as the ghost’s shoulders straightened. When Lelouch met his gaze, it was the emperor again, but the manic look in the ghost’s eye was gone. Instead, Lelouch just looked tired, like he had been wrung out. Suzaku felt the smile on his face soften and he dared to take a step forward. “You kept telling me that it’s time, and I think you were right. There are other people who can handle the job and they have been. They don’t need you hovering around.”

If Lelouch had been alive, the jerk of his shoulders could have mistaken for a breath. For a moment, it looked like he was going to argue back, but then his shoulders slumped. He flickered out of sight, Suzaku about to turn to follow when Lelouch appeared right in front of him.

The ghost reached out, his fingers sliding into the spaces that Suzaku’s fingers had left. Suzaku shivered at the cold, but didn’t move his fingers. It was more important to watch Lelouch and judge his actions.

Behind him, he could hear Kaguya going from sputtering to shouting at him. He ignored her, nodding slowly at Lelouch. “You made me promise to wear the mask and watch over what we created. I thought you trusted me.”

“I do.”

“Then let me do this. You’ve done what you needed to do. You can rest now.”

It seemed to take Lelouch a moment to take in what Suzaku had said. His gaze drifted back to where Julius and Nunnally were waiting. Suzaku didn’t dare to look away from Lelouch, watching as the ghost slumped forward before finally nodding.

Lelouch’s fingers curled on the mask, sinking through it. The sensation seemed to finally hit him, because Lelouch stared down at his hands. He didn’t jerk them out of the helmet, but that seemed to be the last straw.

When he looked back at Suzaku, his eyes were wide. “I watched her die.”

It took Suzaku a moment to figure out who Lelouch was talking about. He tensed, but didn’t dare turn around. Instead, he just nodded. “I know.”

“I watched you die too. It was terrible.”

“It was.”

“And C.C-”

“Was here waiting for you to come to your senses.” The two of them jumped when C.C. walked up beside them. Suzaku shot the woman a quick look, but she barely glanced at him, all of her attention was on Lelouch. She gave him a kind smile, one that looked more relieved than anything. “So, have you?”

The question brought a wry smile to Lelouch’s face. He tipped his head slightly so he could look as C.C. as well. “I thought you were here to keep my head on straight.”

“That was Suzaku’s job.”

“He wasn’t around.”

“But he is now.”

“Yes, he is.” Lelouch hesitated a moment, leaning in before seeming to remember himself. Suzaku saw the ghost’s gaze flick over to where Julius and Nunnally were waiting. Lelouch shook his head and took a step back, letting go of the mask. “Come on. It’s time to finish this.”

* * *

Julius watched the group of four around the fire carefully. Part of him was tempted to step up and listen in to the conversation, but he didn’t dare leave Nunnally’s side. She had already pushed him away once because he had insisted on looking her over for injuries. She had been dragging herself along the floor of the room and then she had gone after Suzaku while the ghost had been in control. Julius hadn’t seen the sword hit her, but he had to be sure. He wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if Nunnally had gotten herself hurt trying to save his life.

His hand twitched by his side, Julius resisting the urge to reach up and touch the scrape that Suzaku had given him. It had stopped bleeding and he didn’t want to dislodge anything. If Nunnally realized that he was bleeding again, he was sure that she would shoo him off. If she was bound and determined to stay until the ghost was properly disposed of, then he would make sure to stick with her.

He would lying if he said that he didn’t want to see the end of it himself. Julius wanted to be sure that the ghost would never be coming back. He also wanted to make sure that whatever the ghost had done to Suzaku could be stopped, because the man had not stepped away from the ghost since he had taken off the mask. If Kaguya hadn’t been standing close to him, Julius would have thought that Suzaku had slipped back under the ghost’s control. As is was, Julius was suspicious.

Kaguya had promised that they were just seeing the end of it, but surely the ghost wouldn’t stay quiet for long. He hadn’t managed it so far.

Julius shivered when the ghost looked over, quickly looking away. He didn’t like looking at Lelouch for too long, sure that the ghost would try to hypnotize him too. Julius could just imagine the ghost commanding him to fall on the sword, especially since the ghost had been so eager to have him dead before. Besides, the ghost looked far too much like him for Julius to be comfortable. It was easier to blame the genes of the royal family when he didn’t have to stare at someone who could have been his twin.

He rubbed at his side, quickly stopping when he felt the scab come loose. Julius wiped the palm of his hand on his pants, turning away when Nunnally gave him a worried look. He was glad that she didn’t pry, although he was sure that she would start pushing him just as soon as Kaguya and Suzaku were done with their ceremony.

Julius took a deep breath, looking back to where they had set a few sticks of incense into the stones around the fireplace. A small fire had been lit back in the fireplace, probably more for light than to be used in any part of the ritual. Surely all they had to do was mutter a few spells and throw something at the ghost to get it to leave for good. Instead, Kaguya was poking at the fire as Suzaku placed a stack of paper on the ground beside her. The paper looked like the talismans that they had been hanging up around the house, but Julius couldn’t tell if the writing was different or not.

He took a step forward, stopping when Nunnally grabbed onto his wrist. Julius looked back at his sister, surprised when she shook her head. “We should stay back here.”

“Don’t you want to know?”

“No.” Nunnally let go of his wrist and folded her hands back into her lap. “I don’t want to go near him, but I need to see that he’s gone to his rest before I can leave.”

Julius sighed and turned back to look at the small group by the fireplace. She hadn’t forbidden him to go, but he didn’t want to leave his sister alone. She had been alone long enough chasing after the ghost.

He reached out for her hand, glad that she was quick to take it.  He squeezed her hand gently, resisting the urge to tug her close. Things were being handled which was all he had wanted since he had heard that his sister had been hurt in the Aries Villa.

A clap in the silent room got his attention, Julius jumping a bit at the sound. He felt Nunnally squeeze his hand, feeling embarrassed that such a simple sound had startled him. That didn’t stop him from curling his fingers more tightly around Nunnally’s. He sucked in a quick breath when he heard bells, Julius looking around until he realized that the sound came from Kaguya. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see where she had pulled the bells from, but he couldn’t pick out anything.

He thought he saw a flash of something, but then Kaguya had already moved onto something else. Julius saw a loop of wooden beads around her wrist, taking them for a rosary for a moment. He raised an eyebrow when Kaguya shifted the beads around her wrist, the nervous motion making him shift in place.

They had been assured that Kaguya and Suzaku could take care of the ghost, but nothing they had done so far had worked, not that it was their fault. The ghost of the Demon Emperor was just as devious dead as he had been in life. That the ghost had just given up so easily made Julius wary. The ghost hadn’t even tried to finish up his plans, he had just given up when Suzaku had talked to him. Julius had been too busy checking over Nunnally to hear the conversation, but whatever Suzaku had told the ghost, it had to have been good to get Lelouch to back down.

Kaguya’s nervous bead twisting came to an abrupt end, the woman kneeling down on the ground to pick up the papers. She had dashed up to her room and had come back with supplies for the ceremony, armfuls of stuff that Julius didn’t know the purpose of. He tipped his head to the side as Kaguya started to sort through the papers, unsure if she was getting them into order or if she was delaying while Suzaku, the ghost and Lucille talked.

He turned his attention to the group of three that had set themselves off to one side. Julius’ gaze lingered on the ghost and the mask that the ghost clutched close to his chest, the edges of the mask poking through into the ghost. They didn’t stay there for long, Lelouch constantly shifting the mask against him as Kaguya looked through the papers. The ghost only settled when Suzaku rested a hand on his shoulder.

Some part of him was relieved that Suzaku’s hand didn’t remain on Lelouch’s shoulder for long. Suzaku’s fingers slid through Lelouch and the man pulled his hand away. The thing that made Julius bristle was the fact that Lelouch didn’t seem to care. The ghost took a step closer to Suzaku, almost huddling by the man’s side. The light from the fire only threw one shadow, Julius huffing and wanting to look away, but he couldn’t.

Kaguya finished shuffling the papers, laying eight out on the floor in a circle. She sat back on her heels, gesturing at the empty place in the circle. Julius couldn’t see Lelouch’s reaction to whatever Kaguya had said, but he saw Suzaku reach for the mask again. He tensed, shifting so he was slightly in front of Nunnally. He didn’t know what he would do if something went wrong, but Nunnally was his priority.

Any vague plans he had started were brought to a stop when Lelouch shook his head, the ghost stepping away from Suzaku. He walked over to the circle on the floor. The ghost stared at the mask for a moment before lowering it to the ground.

Julius expected Kaguya to react as slowly as they had been moving before, like the ghost was an animal that was going to be spooked. It had seemed like a realistic worry, especially since Lelouch had been disappearing and reappearing all over the room before. But his gut told him that Lelouch wouldn’t be disappearing again. Julius frowned, probing at the gut feeling only to get an unsatisfactory answer.

Lelouch wouldn’t be leaving because Suzaku was with him.

The thought made him bristle, Julius slightly surprised by the possessiveness that he felt. Suzaku wasn’t his by any stretch of the imagination, but he certainly wasn’t Lelouch’s. The man had his chance a century ago, and his knight was buried over in Japan. The ghost wasn’t acting like it, he was acting like his knight and Suzaku were the same person.

Julius gritted his teeth, not realizing that he had taken a step forward until Nunnally tugged on his hand. He glanced back at his sister, surprised when she shook her head. She gave him another tug, coaxing him backwards until he was standing beside her. As soon as he had fallen back into place beside her, she gently stroked his arm with her other hand. “Let them have this.”

He opened his mouth to ask what she was talking about when Kaguya started chanting. Julius turned his attention back to her, tipping his head as he tried to figure out what she was saying. He caught a few words being repeated over and over, but he didn’t know what they meant. It was calming in a way, although the sentiment seemed to be his alone; Suzaku’s shoulders had slumped and Lelouch was flinching with every word.

A pop and a hiss drew his attention to the pieces of paper, Julius watching as they curled and burned. He glanced between Kaguya and Suzaku, watching to see if either of them were panicking. Suzaku was the only one that looked like the burning of the paper worried him. Kaguya seemed relieved and Lucille had her usual blank expression on. The only thing that betrayed Lucille’s true feelings about what was going on was the way that she inched closer to the ghost. Her hand moved slightly from her side, but she didn’t reach to grab onto Lelouch. Her careful placement made Julius narrow his eyes, but the mystery of Lucille Clarissant could wait for another time.

The eight papers around burned up into little piles of ash far quicker than they should have naturally. Julius raised an eyebrow, watching the mask.

It didn’t show signs that anything had been done to it. The mask just sat on the floor where it had been placed, the light from the fire flickering over the front of it. With the way that it had been placed on the ground, Julius could see the stains that were along the side. He shivered and looked back over at the ghost.

He had expected the ghost to disappear as soon as Kaguya was done, but Lelouch was still there. Then again, the ghost didn’t look as solid as he had before. Lelouch was swaying in place, Suzaku reaching out to hold him upright. His hand passed through Lelouch, this time trails of translucent ghost stuff following him. Julius’ attention drifted to the lazy swirls that the trails made in the air. They remained there, going slightly gold around the edges before fading away.

Julius looked back at Lelouch, his heart beating quickly as he saw that the ghost’s edges were turning gold as most trails of the translucent stuff started drifting away from him. Lelouch turned to look at it, waving one hand and setting more trails of the stuff drifting around him. Nunnally sucked in a quick breath behind him, Julius getting a tighter hold on her hand as he watched the ghost start to unravel.

It was a slow process, the translucent stands twining around themselves as they dissipated into the air. The more that drifted away from Lelouch, the more the colors drained from the ghost. Only the jewels on his robes and the bloodstain remained bright, the rest fading out to white and then translucent. Julius looked back up at the trails, looking at them for any hint of the color or where they were going. They just seemed to have disappeared entirely, like they had never existed in the fire place.

Julius shivered and looked away, finding himself staring at the stained glass windows over the fireplace instead of at the bits of ghost that were flaking away. After living in fear of him so long, it was weird to see Lelouch so weak. Julius almost couldn’t believe it, because Lelouch had never been one to give up so easily, at least that he’d read, and because it seemed like the ghost was made up of such a fragile substance.

He reached up to rub at his neck, remembering what it had been like to feel Lelouch’s hands closing around him. It was hard to imagine something made of that being able to choke him until he had lost consciousness.

He shook his head, scanning over the stained glass windows. Julius lingered over one of a knight bowing to his king. He knew that it probably represented Sir Lionel bowing to Emperor Lance, but he couldn’t see those two, he could only see Lelouch and his Suzaku.

Julius looked back down at the two in front of the fireplace, surprised to see how fast Lelouch was unraveling. It seemed like the more the strands drifted away the faster they went. As it was, the ghost was almost all the way gone, Julius able to see the entire fireplace and wall behind Lelouch through the ghost.

Lelouch lifted one hand to drag his fingers through one of the trails, Julius surprised by the peaceful look on his face. He had thought that the exorcism would have involved something more powerful, something that would have blown the ghost away. Instead, it was calm and peaceful, maybe a reflection of the ghost’s own choice but Julius couldn’t tell. He didn’t think Kaguya would be up for telling him, not with the way that she was watching Lelouch so closely.

The woman was backing away from the fire, leaving only Lucille, Suzaku and Lelouch standing there. Julius was confused by her retreat until he saw Lucille inch closer to Lelouch.

He raised an eyebrow, watching as the two of them spoke in low voices. They were just out of earshot, but Julius could see the two of them smiling at each other. He couldn’t imagine what the two of them would have to talk about, unless Lelouch was setting her free from whatever contract they had or some formal part of the ceremony. Julius was sure that it wasn’t the case, not with the way they were smiling and leaning close to each other. From what he could see, it looked like a private conversation and one that was he was spying in on.

Nunnally seemed to think the same thing because she tugged on his hand, Julius hearing the whir of her wheelchair as she started to back it away. “Let’s go.”

Julius pivoted to look at his sister. “I thought you wanted to stay.”

“Not for this. It’s private, just between the two of them.”

“They couldn’t have known each other that well.”

“Maybe not, but it’s their moment and I don’t want to be here for it. Besides, it’s over and he’s almost gone.”

Julius glanced back over at the small group, Lucille and Lelouch still talking in low voices. Kaguya was still backing away towards them, but Suzaku was keeping close, probably supervising the ghost. Or that’s what Julius hoped. He shot Suzaku one last look before Kaguya came over to them, the woman resting a hand on Nunnally’s shoulder. “We should go.”

Nunnally nodded. “Of course. Julius?”

She was offering him the chance to refuse, not that he had much of a choice. If he refused, Lelouch was sure that Kaguya would shoo him out for privacy reasons, although he couldn’t imagine what privacy the ghost needed.

He gave Nunnally a curt nod before walking around to the back of her wheelchair. He knew that she could maneuver her wheelchair on her own, but he wanted to stick close to her. Nunnally seemed to understand, folding her hands into her lap and staring ahead at the door. Julius smiled to himself, pushing Nunnally down the center of the room and towards the door. He could hear Kaguya walking behind him, as well as the sound of the conversation behind them rising.

Julius rolled his shoulders forward, trying to ignore them as he pushed Nunnally towards the open doors. He managed to resist the urge to look over his shoulder until he had pushed Nunnally out of the great hall. His sister took control of her wheelchair and moved away from him, Julius letting her go. As Nunnally made her way through the front door, Kaguya walked past him.

For a moment, he thought that she was going to rest a hand on his shoulder, but she jerked her hand away. Julius wasn’t sure what she was trying to comfort him for. He fine with the fact that the ghost was being sent to his rest. He was more than fine, the ghost that had hurt his sister was being sent away for good. The only connection he had had with Lelouch had been through his articles, and that had all been done from the safety of the library.

He rolled his shoulder forward, Kaguya seeming to take the hint. She shrugged and walked away, hurrying to catch up with Nunnally. Julius didn’t bother to watch her go, he just reached for the door, intending to close it behind him. If Kaguya had taken them from the room, then she obviously wanted to give the others some privacy. He couldn’t help himself from peeking back into the room.

Lucille and Lelouch had finished their conversation, the woman backing away. The ghost looked a bit worse for the wear, translucent strands spiraling away from his back. Julius could barely see the outline of the ghost now, Lelouch looking like he would disappear within moments.

The ghost didn’t seem to notice. Lelouch just took two steps, bringing himself closer to Suzaku’s side. Julius curled his fingers around the edge of the door, holding himself back from stepping out. He didn’t think that Lelouch would even recognize him, the ghost’s sole focus was Suzaku.

Julius sucked in a quick breath as Lelouch reached out for Suzaku, more transparent strands sloughing off him with the move. Suzaku didn’t move away, but allowed the touch, even leaning into it. Julius swallowed harshly as the two of them stared at each other, feeling something in his gut twist. He inched further into the great hall, careful to step on the carpet to keep himself from making too much noise.

From what he could see, it didn’t look like it mattered. Suzaku and Lelouch were in their own little world. Julius was sure that he could walk up right up beside the two of them and they still wouldn’t pay him any attention. Julius took a deep breath and took a few more steps forward, even daring to step off the carpet to get closer to the two.

He thought he saw Suzaku’s gaze flicker over to him, but then Suzaku’s attention was back on Lelouch. All it took was a simple touch to his face and Suzaku was his again. Julius gritted his teeth and inched forward, stopping when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Lucille standing behind him, a frown on her face.

She glanced over at Lelouch before shaking her head. “I think it’s time to go.”

Julius sighed, about to ask her what she meant when Lelouch moved. He jumped backward, bumping into Lucille, only to feel foolish when Lelouch just pulled Suzaku forward.

He fully expected Suzaku to push Lelouch away, but his jaw dropped when Suzaku just closed the distance between them, sinking his fingers into Lelouch’s hair. More strands of ghost substance spiraled away, but Julius was sure that the two of them didn’t notice. He heard Suzaku make a soft, desperate noise before the two of them kissed.

Julius flinched and quickly looked at the floor. He felt Lucille’s hand squeeze his shoulder, not sure if she was telling him to leave or just trying to give him some comfort. Julius couldn’t really choose between the two of them, not when his mind was still reeling. There was something dark and possessive roiling in his chest. The urge to storm over to where Suzaku and the ghost was kissing and tear them apart was strong.

He had been right to be wary. Lelouch was on his way out of the world and the damn ghost was still taking things from him.

Julius looked up at what sounded like a sigh. His eyes widened as he watched as the rest of the ghost unraveled into twisting strands. Julius tipped his head back as they drifted up towards the ceiling, disappearing before they could touch it. His mouth dropped open, Julius searching the ceiling for any last bits of the ghost. He only dragged his gaze back down at a pained sound.

Suzaku was standing with his hand still raised, like it was still resting in Lelouch’s hair. Julius thought he saw a faint tremor in Suzaku’s hand before it dropped back to his side. The man kept staring at the empty space where Lelouch had been with wide eyes. It was almost like Suzaku didn’t realize that the ghost was gone. If that was the case, it didn’t take him long to realize it.

He flinched at the wail that Suzaku made, taking a few more steps backward. Some part of him wanted to run, but more of him wanted to rush forward and grab Suzaku. He had thought that the ghost was gone, but there was every chance that it was part of Lelouch’s grand plan. They had kissed after all, and that had to be significant.

“Suzaku!” The man wheeled when Julius shouted his name. For a moment, a hopeful look crossed his face, and then it was replaced with something more like agony. Julius took a step back in the face of it. He shifted awkwardly in place as Suzaku dropped to his knees, the man’s gaze swinging to the mask.

Julius felt his mouth go dry as Suzaku reached out to grab the mask, staring at it before lifting it slightly to press it against his forehead. Julius watched as Suzaku’s shoulders shook, seeing the shine of tears on his face.

He swallowed, opening his mouth to say something when Lucille pulled him back. He spun around to protest, but she didn’t give him the time to. She just tightened her grip on his shoulder and practically dragged him back towards the door.

Julius stumbled after her for a while before managing to get his feet under him. He shot her an angry look, annoyed when Lucille didn’t look back at him. “What are you doing?”

“Giving him time to mourn.”

“Mourn who? The ghost?”

Lucille gave him a frustrated look, one that reminded him of the looks that Marianne had given him when he had been particularly stubborn as a child. He had never been able to argue with the look, Julius frowning and looking away. It was probably just more of her cryptic nonsense, something that he didn’t need to listen to. His priority should be Nunnally and getting her home. The two of them had been up late and Nunnally had to be ready to drop. They had done what they had accomplished, so he should be able to call it a job well done.

That didn’t stop the odd twisting feeling in his stomach. Nor did it stop him from looking back over his shoulder at Suzaku as Lucille practically dragged him from the room.

* * *

C.C. watched as Julius turned the car around the circle at the front of the villa. She kept her arms crossed over her chest, letting Kaguya do the waving. She doubted that either Julius or Nunnally would be looking out.

After the night that the two of them had C.C. would be surprised if Nunnally had managed to stay awake. Julius, she expected to stay up further. If he was anything like Lelouch, and she hadn’t seen anything to prove her wrong, he would be trying to piece everything together. He hadn’t seemed to react well to seeing the truth, so he wouldn’t stop pushing until it made sense in his head. She had expected nothing less.

The car finished its slow turn before heading off down the driveway, C.C. not bothering to watch them reach the end of the drive. She was sure that they would make it back alright. Julius would take the direct route back to the palace and, with the sun just barely starting to come up, they wouldn’t run into anyone. Everyone would be too busy with the celebration of the Demon Emperor’s death, with was hilariously ironic. She doubted that the two of them would be joining in the festivities, especially after what they had seen.

She shook her head and turned on her heel. She was more than ready to go back inside and sleep through as much of the day as she could. With Lelouch’s ghost sent to his rest, there was no point to going to his grave to try and placate his spirit. C.C. wasn’t keen on going back down to the subterranean graves again, at least not for a long while.

C.C. sighed and walked back into the house, staring up at the grand ceiling. Euphemia had done well in cleaning up the place, even if she hadn’t come to any decisions about how to use it. C.C. had watched her long enough to know that the Aries Villa wouldn’t be allowed to sit empty anymore. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch up, C.C. shaking her head.

It wasn’t time to get sentimental about the old place, there were a few more things to do before she went to bed. For one, she had to find the sword and the mask. The former could be returned to the attic, it wasn’t remarkable in any way that a museum would appreciate. The mask could be sent off along with the rest of the suit, C.C. was sure that some museum or the royal family would love to have a fragment of their past. C.C. just wanted it out of the villa.

She made her way back down towards the great hall, cautiously reaching out to check if Lelouch was still there. She couldn’t feel any cold spots, nor did she feel the tenuous connection through their contract. The only place she felt Lelouch was through C’s World, right where he belonged. She sighed and nodded to herself. She hadn’t doubted that Suzaku and Kaguya would be able to handle Lelouch. As far as she was concerned, they had dealt with him as best as they could. C.C. had been expecting Lelouch to put up more of a fight, but maybe he had been just as exhausted by existing as she had gotten. It was a hard call, especially since their existences had been so different. Still, it had been nice to have Lelouch around for a while. At least it had meant that she wasn’t alone.

C.C. shook her head and reached for the doors of the great hall. They had been left partially open, probably because Julius hadn’t cared to shut the door all the way. He had been too busy watching Suzaku. There was something in that, but C.C. wasn’t going to linger over that. It was Julius’ business and not her own.

She nudged the door open further, sighing when she saw that Suzaku was still kneeling in the center of the room. The mask was held limply in his lap, Suzaku staring off into one corner of the hall, but she doubted that he saw anything.

C.C. stepped away from the carpet that ran down the center of the hall, making noise as she approached. She saw Suzaku’s shoulders twitch, but he didn’t move from his place on the floor. She made her way over to his side, standing beside him before lowering herself to the floor.

He didn’t look at her, C.C. taking her time to brush her hands over her pants. She didn’t expect blood or any remains of Lelouch, but she wanted to make sure. She didn’t want to have anything from the night clinging to her, she wanted it to be over just as much as everyone else. Although, looking at Suzaku, she wasn’t sure that he shared the sentiment.

They sat in silence for a moment longer before C.C. lost her patience. “He’s gone.”

“I know.”

“He should have been gone ages ago.”

Suzaku made a sound that could have been a laugh, but it broke slightly at the end. He finally looked away from his corner, fixing her with a long stare. C.C. was surprised by the expression; it was something she had expected from the old Suzaku. She held his gaze for as long as he would let her, smiling when he looked away first. She took her chance to scoot closer, resting a hand on his arm. “It’s true.”

“That doesn’t make it easier.”

“Says the man who spent his last days harrying Lelouch.”

“It was easier.” Suzaku sighed and ducked his head. He held still for a moment before shivering violently. When he looked up again, his eyes were wide and he looked frightened. “Sorry. It keeps happening. I thought I had it sorted out, but he keeps coming back.”

C.C. tipped her head to the side, watching as red flicker around his irises. She frowned and leaned forward, grabbing his chin and turning his head. Suzaku didn’t resist her pull, staring directly at her. She gave him a quick nod in thanks before watching the flickering around his eyes. She kept a hold on his chin until it stopped, C.C. raising an eyebrow when the flickering stopped. She hummed to herself and sat back, watching his body language carefully. “Who are you now?”

“Me. I think.” Suzaku frowned and leaned back, C.C. letting him go. He rubbed at his temple one more time before shrugging. “It comes and goes.”

“So he’s not in control.”

“I don’t think so. It’s hard to explain.” Suzaku dragged his fingers over the front of the mask before he shook his head. “They’re memories, but I can fall too deep into them. He isn’t possessing me, but it’s easy to forget about me.” Suzaku shook his head again. “It doesn’t make sense.”

C.C. shrugged. She had heard stranger things before, but she had lived a strange life. She crossed her legs, resting her chin in her hand. “What did he command you to do?”

Suzaku stared at her for a moment before his gaze unfocused. “He told me to come back to him.”

C.C. sighed and shook her head. It sounded like Lelouch had been reaching out for allies while he had been confused. He talked to her like they were back in the days before Zero Requiem, but she shouldn’t have been surprised that he had been trying to reach Suzaku. He had been focused on him while they were roaming the house, she just hadn’t put it together.

She watched Suzaku focus on the mask again, shaking her head. “I can’t fix it. There was someone who could, but he’s long dead.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Suzaku squeezed his eyes shut, breathing heavily for a few minutes before opening his eyes again. When he smiled at her, it looked fragile, like he was about to shake apart. “I’m fine.”

She raised her eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t her job to babysit him, he wasn’t her Suzaku. The fact that the two of them had gotten tangled together over Lelouch’s ghost didn’t mean that they would remain that way. Suzaku had had a life before she had brought him in and she was more than willing to let him go back to that. It still didn’t stop her from worrying.

C.C. pulled her knees up to her chest, watching Suzaku carefully. “Will you be alright?”

Suzaku raised one shoulder in a shrug. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

She rolled her eyes as his answer, getting to her feet. If he was going to be stubborn about it then she was going to let him. They were both adults and could handle themselves. Besides, she had never had the persuasive power over Suzaku that she’d had over Lelouch. She hadn’t spent enough time around Suzaku to learn the trick. Most of their time together had been spent in short conversations and silence, but they had always managed to understand each other.

She glanced over at him as Suzaku got to his feet. The man looked down at himself, shivering as he seemed to realize what he was wearing. Suzaku quickly looked away, scanning over the room. He walked away from her, C.C. pivoting to watch as he went over to where the sword and the cape had been thrown on the ground.

Suzaku picked up the cape first, running his hands over it almost reverently before balling it up in his arms. He jammed the cape under his arm before snatching up the sword. Suzaku slipped the sword back into the scabbard, looking around the room. She saw his eyes widen as he spotted something. C.C. stepped to the side to see what had caught his attention, but Suzaku was already moving towards it. He scooped it up before she could say anything, turning around to face her.

For a moment, she saw her Suzaku in his eyes and pose, it was the familiar exhaustion and stubbornness. He looked every inch the lost boy and it made her want to draw him close, but she didn’t think they would allow it. There had been a moment once, just after Zero Requiem, but it had passed quickly. Suzaku had never been distant to her, but he had never allowed himself to step out of the boundaries that had been set up for him. Then again, she had never expected anything different from him.

She relaxed when Suzaku shook his head, his body language slipping back into something more like himself. He bit his lip and playing with the paper that he had in his hand. It took him a while to come to a decision, C.C. waiting patiently until Suzaku walked back towards her.

He came to a stop in front of her, shifting in place before holding the piece of paper out to her. “I think you should have this.”

C.C. took the paper, reading through the list of names. She tipped her head to the side, quickly folding it up after skimming through the first few. “Where did you find this?”

“One of Nunnally’s diaries.”

C.C. laughed, shaking her head. She should have expected Nunnally to start something like this. The empress had been every bit like her mother and brother, unable to let something go once she had set her mind to it. C.C. would have been more surprised if Nunnally hadn’t tried to work out the mystery. The first two names had been written in her handwriting and the rest were of different people, which probably meant that the Zeros that had followed had kept up the list, although the list must have been tucked away before they could complete it.

She folded the list up before she looked back at him. “Why?”

“Because you’ve watched over this for long enough, and you’re the only one left alive out of all of it. He would…Lelouch would have trusted you.” Suzaku cleared his throat, looking away from her. “And you’ll see Julius sooner than I will. I know the whole truth, but I don’t think that Julius will give up until he knows it. He’s too much like Lelouch to not.”

“And you’re willing to just give him all of this?”

“I think it’s time. It’s been one hundred years, C.C, and you saw what it did to Lelouch. Don’t you think it’s time to let it rest?”

C.C. shrugged and slipped the paper into her pocket. “I don’t know. Then again, it isn’t my secret to keep.”

“We’ll leave that up to Julius then. I trust him, don’t you?”

“He’s not Lelouch.”

“I know, but he’s not too different.”

C.C. shrugged. She had been around long enough to see the repetitions of faces and personalities that she guessed was reincarnation. She had kept herself well away from any religions since her dealings with Sister Marie. C.C. had just assumed that it was a case of history repeating itself, but she couldn’t be sure and she had never cared until recently. After all, she had hoped that the reappearance of Suzaku would be enough to calm Lelouch. Her plan had almost worked, it had at least gotten Lelouch to a point where he would stop hiding and talk to her.

Suzaku seemed to take her silence as an answer. He nodded at her and started to walk out of the room, probably going to change out of the suit. It wasn’t too different from what he had done after Zero Requiem.

She had been there when he had stormed back into the room and practically thrown the uniform across the room. C.C. remembered him searching his closet before breathing a sigh of relief before pulling out one of the spares. He had noticed her soon after that, and then he had pointed over at the crumpled uniform and swore that he would never wear that one again. And he hadn’t, it had remained hidden until Suzaku had been ready to give the role to his replacement. Then, it had been shoved up into the attic. C.C. didn’t think it had come down out of the attic until Lelouch had dragged it out.

She didn’t blame him for wanting to get out of it, not with the bloodstains still on it. She didn’t think that it mattered to him that they were a century old. With his past memories knocking around, she was sure that they felt fresh.

C.C. shivered at the thought, running her fingers over the piece of paper in her pocket. She was surprised that he would trust her with the list and that made her suspicious. She drummed her fingers against the pocket before stepping forward. “Suzaku.”

The sound of his name brought him up short, Suzaku turning his head to look at her. He was back to the man that she had known for a moment before the other Suzaku won over the memories. It was a struggle, she could see that from the sweat that formed on his face. And he had said that he was fine. She should have known better with Suzaku; his stubbornness wouldn’t change no matter how many years passed.

She crossed the space between them, reaching out to touch his arm. She kept the touch brief, pulling her hand back before Lelouch’s command could assert his knight forward over Suzaku. C.C. waited until he turned his head, looking Suzaku over carefully. The man looked exhausted, even when he was in full possession of himself. It didn’t look like the kind of exhaustion that sleep could heal, but that would be no guarantee that he would rest.

She shook her head at him. “You won’t kill him if you go to see him.”

“I might have once.” Suzaku went to laugh, but the sound caught in his throat. He turned away to clear his throat, staring off down the hall. He quickly looked back at her, his shaky smile back in place. “But I can’t stay here. He spent most of his life here and died here. It’s hard to keep him out if I stay here.”

“Japan won’t be much better.”

“I know, but at least I’ll be home.”

C.C. wasn’t sure that it was the better option, but she didn’t blame him for trying. He must have been more than willing to go back after everything that had happened in the villa, and she was sure that the other set of memories would be spurring him back as well. After all, Suzaku had always wanted to go back to Japan one last time before he had died, but he had never managed that. Maybe going back home would quiet those memories as well.

She tipped her head his way. “I’ll make sure that your fee gets to you.”

“Thank you.”

She was sure that he wasn’t talking about the money, but she let it pass. She just watched as he quickly walked away from the room, sighing as his footsteps retreated down the hall.

When she was sure that she was alone, she turned on her heel and walked back to where the mask was still resting in front of the fireplace. C.C. stared down at the mask, resisting the urge to kick it. It would do nothing, Lelouch was already long gone. She snorted and dropped to a crouch. C.C. stared at the mask for a moment before picking it up. She turned it from side to side before giving the mask a shake. “This is just like you, leaving us to pick up the pieces. Ungrateful brat.”

She smiled fondly at the mask, lifting it up to kiss the top of it. She then tucked the mask under her arm and stood up. She would have to find a place for it and the matching uniform until she managed to call on one of the museums, or maybe she would show it to Euphemia when the woman came back around. It would be easy enough to stay that she had found it; no one would know the difference. She could pass the both of them on and let the rest of the country remember the events of the Demon Emperor’s death while she moved on.

She had been in the villa too long and, now that she had nothing tying her down, the urge to wander again was growing too strong. Besides, Suzaku and Kaguya had already discovered her secret, it would only be a matter of time before something else did the same. It was better to leave before someone decided to use her again or worse, stone her.

If that was the case, then it was a good thing that she travelled lightly.

C.C. sighed and hitched the mask into a more comfortable position under her arm. She gave the great hall one last look before sweeping out. There were things to be done and her own affairs to look after. She had already mourned Lelouch once, she didn’t need to mourn the fact that he had finally gone to his rest.

Maybe, just before she left the house, she would go down to his grave and lay a crane. One last crane before she moved on and shook the dust of Britannia from her feet.


	12. Chapter Eleven: Those Left Behind

“I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am full of tears and hunger and the fear of death, though I cannot weep, and I want nothing, and I cannot die. I am not like the others now, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I do. I regret.”  
 - _The Last Unicorn_ , Peter S. Beagle

* * *

The words on the page swam before his eyes, Julius groaning and leaning back. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, tipping his head back.

He kept thinking that if he just read one more book, one more article, everything would make sense; but nothing had worked. Everything that he read said one thing, but the more he looked at the facts that he had ferreted out and what he had seen in the great hall of the Aries Villa pointed towards another. It was a confusing mess, one that Julius had thought that he should have seen earlier. How he had missed it was beyond him, because it was so obvious now that he had the key.

Lelouch vi Britannia had intended himself to be killed all along.

The very thought left a sour taste in his mouth. The one thing that had kept the peace had been a lie, which had him wondering how much of the rest of it had been a lie. What other lies had been told to weave together the path the world was on, and how long would everything last once everyone knew? Then again, the question was if anyone would find out. Without knowing that one little bit of information, everything could be made to line up however they wanted it. He had been a victim of the same thing himself, but now his eyes were opened.

Julius leaned forward, letting his hands drop back to the table. He was tempted to pull another book forward and read through it. It was a heady thing to be able to pick out the things that everyone had let slip through the cracks. He was uncovering the story of the century, and Julius was sure that no one would believe it if he wrote it. Certainly none of the magazines or papers would publish it. Everyone was more than happy to continue believing that they had just barely escaped the clutches of an evil man.

If that was the case, then it was just a matter of deciding whether it was better for the world to believe the lie or for them to be set free. That was an interesting question to answer, and one that he wanted to work on when he wasn’t so exhausted.

He had been looking through every history book and biography that the royal library had on Lelouch vi Britannia, skimming through the pages in his search for answers that made sense. The first few hours had been frustrating, only because he hadn’t bothered to adjust his thinking to the new facts that he had to factor in. It was only when he finally submitted to the idea that the assassination had been staged that things had started to make sense. Soon afterward, the ghost’s actions had started to make sense.

Alexander Zambrano had been killed because he had been courting Aurelia when the princess had been needed for an alliance with the failing Chinese Federation. If the nation had fallen, then there would have been a scramble for land that would have ended with a new empire to the east, and then war would have broken out.

Sir Lionel Strickland had been killed because he had been an ally of Emperor Lance. Not only had the man helped ruin everything that both Lelouch and Empress Nunnally had worked for, but he had also been placed into the role of Zero and flaunted that publically. That had run against everything that Lelouch had done, everything that Zero stood for.

The child might have been killed because there were rumors that it had been Lance’s, but Julius doubted that Lelouch could have brought himself to do that. It was more likely that Lelouch had killed Daniel Cotterill. The man might have been openly supporting Richard, but everything that Julius had dug up previously showed that Cotterill had been a fervent supporter of Emperor Lance. He had been wrong when he had assumed that Lelouch had made a mistake in killing the man. The ghost had been right on target.

Julius couldn’t imagine why Lelouch would want to hurt Nunnally, not when she looked like his departed sister. But maybe he hadn’t meant to hurt her. Maybe it had all been horrible circumstances.

And his own accident was just a fault of genetics. He looked far too much like a ghost bent on his own destruction for the sake of the world.

Julius sunk further into his chair, staring up at the ceiling. He could see the sun starting to come through the windows, throwing warm light in rectangles on the white ceiling. He couldn’t tell what time it was from their position alone, but he didn’t think it mattered. He had been up all night working on the problem of Lelouch vi Britannia again. At least this time he had gotten more answers than before.

He let his eyes slide closed, intending to rest them for a while. He would give himself five minutes before getting back to work. There were a few more books he wanted to go through, a few more questions to answer before he felt that he had a full grasp on what had gone on.

Julius didn’t know how long he had allowed himself to doze before the door slid open. He started awake, getting halfway to his feet when he recognized who was standing at the door. His shoulders slumped when he saw Lucille and not Suzaku was standing by the door.

He rocked forward to brace himself on the table, hiding a yawn in his arm. Julius shook his head and looked up at her again, unable to help himself from looking behind her to see if Suzaku was lurking there. He couldn’t image that Lucille Clarissant would leave the Aries Villa without either Suzaku or his cousin, not unless there was really horrible news.

“Is he back?”

Lucille stared at him for a moment before shaking her head.

Julius relaxed at the simple motion, leaning heavily on the table as she stepped into the room. He waited until the door had slid shut behind her to raise his head, watching the woman move around the room. Julius bit his lip, keeping silent until she had reached the shelf beside him. “So what do I call you?”

The question brought her up short, Julius counting that as a small victory. He pushed away from the table, taking a step towards her. “You said your name was Lucille, but Lelouch called you C.C. Which is it?”

The woman shrugged. “Neither, but I prefer C.C.”

“That’s not a name.”

“No, but it is mine.” She flashed him a quick, enigmatic smile before turning to face him completely. “Someone once told me it was a witch’s name.”

“And are you a witch?”

“Some call me that.” He got another quick smile for that, one that quickly faded. “I haven’t done anything to earn the title for years.”

“So what are you?”

C.C. raised one shoulder in a shrug. “I’m C.C.”

Julius groaned and sank down into his chair, trying to ignore the way that she laughed. He ran his hands through his hair, quickly reaching back up to comb it into place. C.C. seemed to take that as in invitation to join him because she sat down at the table and started to poke through the books that he had been reading.

He let her go at it, throwing the door one last glance before saving the book that he had been intending to start on from her clutches. She had proven that she hadn’t been working with the ghost, but he couldn’t quite trust her. Even out of the villa she was carefully leading him around subjects, not the behavior of someone trustworthy.

He muffled another yawn against his arm before opening the book, trying to get his eyes to focus on the words. As far as he could tell it was another biography of Lelouch vi Britannia, but he didn’t think that it was any different from the others that he had read. Julius sighed and flipped to the index. He went straight for the entries on Zero, frowning at the sparse list of page numbers that followed. The biography must have been one of the ones that focused more on Lelouch’s short reign than anything that led up to it.

Julius shut the book, pushing it away from him. He didn’t want to go over the same thing over and over again. Now that he knew how to look for the inconsistencies he wanted to look for answers. It was easy to say that the assassination was staged, but that didn’t tell him why Lelouch had purposefully killed himself. What was the point in taking control of the entire world only to give it up and hope that everything went well? It made no sense to him.

He leaned his cheek on his hand, staring at the other books around him. He doubted that they would have any of the answers, considering that they had all been written only knowing the lie. The only place he could even imagine finding the things he needed would be in the books that had probably been consigned to the villa. Julius knew for a fact that all of Empress Nunnally’s diaries were there, but that would mean making a trip back to the villa.

Julius curled his fingers into a fist, sucking in a quick breath. He didn’t want to go back to the villa, not even when he knew that the ghost was no longer there. The place still felt haunted to him, he couldn’t think about that place without thinking about how attached the ghost had been to Suzaku. Everything that he had read about the emperor and his knight had just made him remember the way that Lelouch had desperately kissed Suzaku, and how Suzaku had kissed him back.

He swallowed, staring down at the table. Any strange thing that happened between Suzaku and the ghost wasn’t his problem, he was just focusing on putting the facts back in order. If figuring out the truth meant going to the villa, then he would have to do it, and it wasn’t just because of the chance to see Suzaku again. The man was probably fine, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

He shifted in his seat, glancing over at where C.C. was flipping through one of the books. It was obvious that she wasn’t reading it, which begged the question of why she had come to the palace in the first place.

Julius doubted that Euphemia was in residence at the moment, his cousin had probably been up at dawn to prepare for the day of celebration. Neither he nor Nunnally would get the chance to talk to her until all the celebrations were over for the day. Until then, the two of them wouldn’t be missed and Julius was more than happy to let his sister sleep. Besides, she didn’t seem to have the same burning desire to figure out what had really gone on that first September twenty-eighth.

Julius uncurled his fingers, carefully splaying them out over the table. C.C. must have seen them because he saw her shift, but she didn’t look away from her book. Julius rolled his eyes at that. He had read that book sometime in the early hours of the morning and it hadn’t been useful; it was just the usual rubbish intended to grab people’s attention without any historical fact.

He cleared his throat, waiting a moment more to see if she would look up. When she didn’t, he leaned slightly closer, annoyed at the slight smile that he saw on her face. Julius pushed his annoyance away, giving her a long look. “Is there a reason that you decided to come here?”

“Maybe.” She flipped between two pages before shutting the book completely. C.C. leaned her elbow against the cover, watching him just as carefully as he was watching her. She narrowed her eyes for a moment before her expression slipped back into something more neutral. “Or maybe I was just bored. The villa is quieter now.”

“I thought you would have liked it.”

“I don’t like the quiet. The house is too big for that. I got used to the ghost.”

“He talked to you?” Julius found himself leaning closer to her, waiting for her answer.

If the ghost had talked to her then it explained their closeness in the villa before. He couldn’t quite put an exact number on her age, but Julius assumed that she had grown up working in the villa with her mother. That was a lifetime to get to know the Demon Emperor. Obviously it hadn’t turned her against the rest of them, but it had made her sympathetic.

He waited for her answer, glaring when she seemed to enjoy his discomfort. C.C. laughed and sat back in her chair, her fingers skimming absently over the arm of the chair. “Of course we talked, there wasn’t much else to do.” The corner of her mouth twitched up into something like a smile before she shook her head. “But I’m not here for the conversation.”

“Obviously.”

C.C. laughed, Julius surprised by the sound. He was used to the woman sneaking around the halls of the villa and keeping to herself. Aside from the fiasco that had been the night before and his initial meeting with Suzaku and Kaguya, Julius hadn’t spent much time with her. Everything that he had thought of the woman had been based on the fact that she had seemed to avidly avoid him. For all that he had known, Lucille Clarissant had been a respectable woman who wouldn’t have laughed at that kind of joke.

She shifted in her chair, leaning forward until her hair slid over her shoulder. C.C. didn’t seem to be bothered by it, she was too busy looking closely at him. Julius thought he saw a flash of red under her bangs, but she sat back before Julius could see if it was a tattoo or just a general reddening of her skin.

C.C. played with the ends of her hair, her gaze darting down to something that she had set by her chair when she had sat down. She leaned to the side, Julius leaning with her.

There was a plain looking messenger bag by her chair, Julius surprised by how much it was bulging. He raised an eyebrow as she pulled four books out of her bag. He didn’t get a chance to read the titles, because she was pulling more books out. Julius rocked back in his seat, staring at the growing stack in awe. He had fully expected her to just be bringing papers or other official documents to the palace for Euphemia to see or have her own personal things; not to have the bag filled with books.

He jumped when she used an arm to carelessly push his stacks of books off the table. The sound startled him, Julius scrambling halfway out of his chair before he was completely aware of it. He stared at her before blushing and carefully sitting back down. Julius was sure that he heard C.C. laugh at him, but he ignored the sound in favor of tipping his head to read the titles.

Most of the spines were blank, Julius frowning and brushing his fingers over them. He stepped away from his chair, coming around to stare at the two piles that were forming.

It was obvious that C.C. had brought the books from the villa, but how she could have known that he had been in the library was beyond him. There was every chance that she had called ahead to ask about the two of them, but he couldn’t see her doing that. For some reason, C.C. cared about the two of them but Julius couldn’t understand why, not unless it was just because they had lived through the ghost’s insane scheme the night before.

He leaned his weight on the table, looking at the elaborate gilded cover on the last book that she rested on the table. _Ashford Academy_.  Julius flipped open the book, sighing when he saw that the inner page just had a set of dates. _2017-2018_.

The two years were important, but only because of the date range. Lelouch had been at Ashford during that time, but what that could mean Julius didn’t know. That didn’t stop him from paging through the pictures of smiling students. From the photo album alone, Ashford Academy looked like it was one big party, not much different from its current reputation. Interspersed were pictures of Lelouch and the future Empress Nunnally. Julius sighed and shook his head, his eyes widening as he saw the picture on the next page.

The picture was of Lelouch and Suzaku, the two of them obviously at one of the Ashford events because they were both in aprons. It was the casual arm that Lelouch had slung over Suzaku’s shoulders that was the shocking thing. The gesture was familiar and yet Suzaku was pressed against Lelouch’s side and seemed perfectly happy to be there.

The sight of the two of them made his stomach twist. He knew that the Suzaku in the picture was dead and buried somewhere in Japan, but the similarity between the Knight of Zero and the Suzaku that was at the villa was too much. Julius was reluctant to name the feeling that was curling in his stomach as jealousy, but it was hard not to think of it that way when all he could think about was the ghost pulling Suzaku into a kiss.

He turned on his heel and stormed towards the door. Julius knew that there no good reason for going to the villa, but he couldn’t think of a reason for staying in the palace. The villa had all the information he needed and, more importantly, it had Suzaku. There were things that they had to talk about, things that he couldn’t wait on any longer. He might have been willing to let what happened to Suzaku go without an explanation before, but he wouldn’t let it sit much longer.

Julius made it all the way to the door and was reaching for the door panel when C.C. cleared her throat. He turned to look at her, watching as she carefully arranged the books she had brought. He rolled his eyes and reached for the panel again only to have her clear her throat again. Julius made an impatient sound and turned to look at her. “What?”

“You won’t find him there.”

He tensed, staring at her. He wanted to ask how she knew why he was going to do, but he stopped when he realized what she had said. “What do you mean?”

C.C. pulled a piece of paper from the front of one of the books. She held it up, Julius too far away to see what was written on it. C.C. gave it a little wave before setting back down on the table. When he didn’t move from his place by the door, she slid it forward, moving it along the blank sections of the table. She tapped her fingers against it once before pulling her hand back. “He told me to give this to you.”

Julius took a step away from the door, tempted by the paper. If Suzaku had told C.C. to give him the paper, it was because it was important. After all, Suzaku had spent more time researching the Demon Emperor than he had. The problem was the method of delivery. He would have thought that Suzaku would have delivered the books and the paper himself.

A cold chill ran down his spine, Julius taking a step back to press his back against the wall. He felt better with something solid behind him. He stared at C.C. with wide eyes, his mind already rushing to the worst scenarios.

Suzaku had said that he was fine before, but sobbing over Zero’s mask didn’t look like someone that was doing alight. Julius didn’t think that Suzaku would be desperate enough to try and summon Lelouch back let alone try and follow Lelouch. Then again, Suzaku wouldn’t have been in his right mind, he would still be under Lelouch’s control.

He shook his head, staring at the woman. “C.C…”

“He’s gone.” She didn’t seem to see the way that he reached for the door panel. “He and Kaguya left this morning.”

“Without saying goodbye?” Julius didn’t quite understand why he felt so gutted. He gritted his teeth, forcing down the feeling. It didn’t matter, not when Suzaku and Kaguya could be in danger.

He and Nunnally had just left them even after they knew that Lelouch had taken control of Suzaku. They had just taken Suzaku’s word that everything was fine and walked away.

Julius shook his head and started keying in the code. “We need to catch up with them.”

“Julius-”

“Who knows what will happen to them.” The door slid open, Julius breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that the hallway was clear. He rested a hand on the door jamb, torn between rushing off for the airport and going to check in on Nunnally before he left. “It’s our fault for putting them into that situation.”

“You wouldn’t be able to help.” Her comment brought him up short, Julius turning to look at her. C.C. was leaning on the table, braced carefully over the books. “But I promise that the two of the will be safe.”

“What about whatever the ghost did to him?”

“That’s nothing you can help with. He’s got to work that out on his own.”

“Why? We’re the ones who dragged him into this.”

“Yes, but we can’t do anything.” C.C. sat down again, giving him a long look. When he didn’t move from the door, she sighed and reached over to flick at the paper. “I’m not going to pretend to know what he’s doing, I’m just doing what he asked. He asked me to bring you this.”

“And the rest?” Julius gestured at the books cluttering the table.

“That was my own choice.” The small smile was back on her face, C.C. looking more relaxed. “I knew you wouldn’t give up until you knew exactly what was going on.”

“How?”

“You and Lelouch are more alike than you think.”

Julius frowned at the statement, but didn’t bother to argue. He wasn’t in the mood for more of her cryptic answers, not when he seemed to be surrounded by nothing but questions without any real answers. He stormed back over to the table, picking up the piece of paper without looking at it.

C.C. didn’t seem too disturbed by his anger, she had gone back to flipping through one of the books. She must have sensed his gaze on her because she shrugged. “Do you trust him?”

“What?”

“If you trust him, then you’ll let him do this. If you’re smart, you’ll wait for him to come back. But you’re not.”

“I’m not smart?”

The mocking smile could have been answer enough, but C.C. looked up from her book to meet his gaze. “You’re stubborn, so you’ll go after him.”

“How do you know?”

“I told you, you’re more like Lelouch than you’d like to admit. Besides, I don’t think the two of you could stay apart.”

Julius opened his mouth to ask another question, but he snapped it shut. He had yet to get a straight answer out of C.C, and he doubted that he would. She seemed to be having more fun pushing him to find his own answers. In the end, those were probably the only answers that he would trust.

He sighed and walked back to the table, giving the door one last look when it slid shut. There was still part of him that wanted to go running after Suzaku, even if it was impossible. If the two of them had left that morning, they were probably already flying back to Japan. He could catch his own flight, but that wouldn’t help, not until he got the answers that both he and Suzaku would need. Maybe if he could get to the bottom of the mystery, the two of them would be able to get over whatever had happened to them that night.

Julius picked up the piece of paper and sat with his back to the door. He stared at it for a moment, not really reading it as his mind tracked over the miles. He jumped over the cities and islands the plane would cross over, not recognizing the list in his hand until he read the first name on it.

_Suzaku Kururugi._

He nearly dropped the paper in shock. Julius scrambled for a better hold on the paper, his hands shaking as he read over the list of names.

_Holders of the Honorable Position of Zero_

_Lelouch vi Britannia (2017-2018)_  
_Suzaku Kururugi (2018-2060)_  
 _Noriko Ohgi (2060-2083)_  
 _~~Lionel Strickland (2083-2086)~~_  
 _Chryssa Floros (2092-2102)_  
 _Mayur Sharma (1202-)_

Julius let up his death grip on the paper when a fold nearly obscured Mayur Sharma’s name. He dropped the paper to the table, smoothing it out carefully.

He had heard rumors of a list of Zero, but no one had ever been able to find it. Researchers had only known that it had existed because Nunnally’s diaries had said that she had started a list so the people who had acted as Zero did not disappear completely. But they always did. Julius was sure that the disappearance of Noriko Ohgi was still an open cold case. Julius hadn’t heard about the others, which meant that he had another thing to look into, but all of that could wait until later. The think that shocked him the most were the carefully written dates beside Suzaku’s name.

2018-2060. But everyone knew that Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of Zero, had died in the Battle of Mount Fuji in 2018. There was a grave in a Japanese cemetery that was carefully tended. It was impossible to think that the Knight of Zero had survived after the Lancelot exploded.

But Lelouch hadn’t been assassinated, it had been staged. It wasn’t hard to imagine what had gone through the Demon Emperor’s head when he had planned the whole spectacle. Who else would he trust other than his loyal knight? Who else in the world would imagine that the dead Knight of Zero would actually be Zero? Who else could be trusted with the sake of the world?

He looked up at C.C. The woman had stopped pretending to read her book, instead she was watching him intently. She leaned forward slightly, peering at the list before shaking her head. “I didn’t expect it to be so comprehensive, but it’s not entirely accurate.”

Julius shook his head, he didn’t care about the accuracy, at least at the moment. He was too busy trying to wrap his mind around the information that he was getting. It was definitely answering questions, but it was making more in their place.

He played with the edge of the paper, swallowing harshly. There were plenty of other questions that he wanted to know the answers too, but it was hard to think of them. There was one thing that bothered him, something that he couldn’t just let go of. Something that was more important than the thousands of other things that needed to be revealed.

Julius bit his lip, staring down at the paper before he looked up at C.C. The woman had reached for her bag and had drawn out squares of colored paper. She selected a pink one and started to fold it, pausing after a few folds to look at him at nod.

He didn’t know why he had needed the permission, but it unlocked the block in his throat. Julius dropped his gaze back to the paper, resting his finger right beside Suzaku’s name. “Where is he?”

“At peace.”

“ _Where?_ ” Julius didn’t know why the answer was so important to him, not when there were plenty of other things to worry about. _His_ Suzaku was alive and well, and heading miles away from him back to Japan. But the thought that Suzaku wasn’t settled in the grave like he had thought hurt more than he had expected. After everything, Suzaku deserved to rest.

He shook his head at the vague thought, staring hopefully at C.C.

The woman took her time answering. She continued to work on her paper, making more of the intricate folds. Julius fully expected for her to ignore his question until her fingers stopped working on the folds. She sighed and looked up at him, Julius confused by the fond smile that was on her face. “Don’t worry. He hasn’t been misplaced somewhere.”

Julius breathed a sigh of relief, leaning heavily on the table. He pushed his fingers through his hair, trying to sort out the riot of emotion that was rolling through him. Only half of them made sense, and he desperately needed to sort it out.

He looked up at C.C, watching as she held up the crane that she had folded. She turned it over in her hand before setting the crane carefully down on the table. She pulled the next sheet of paper out, Julius staring at the delicate swirled design before she dropped it back down on the table.

“C.C?”

He wasn’t sure what he was asking her, but she seemed to understand. C.C. smoothed the paper down, repeating the motion a few times before looking up at him. “It would have been helpful if Lelouch had left a diary, but we only have Nunnally’s, and she didn’t know the whole story. I doubt Suzaku told her. Lelouch did like his secrets.”

The fond smile was back, C.C. patting the paper one last time before shaking her head. “I know where he is.”

Julius let out a sigh of relief, leaning back in his chair. He ran a shaky hand over his face, unnerved by the sweat he had felt break out. Suzaku Kururugi had been dead for one hundred years, it shouldn’t have mattered. Julius groaned and sunk down into his chair, his gaze going back to the paper in front of him.

He reached out to trace the careful handwriting, jerking his gaze away. He settled for watching C.C. as she started on what looked like another crane. Julius watched her hands as she put the creases into place. From the concentration that she was putting into the crane it looked like she was done answering his questions.

That didn’t matter, she had brought him everything he needed to find his answers. All he had to do was start looking. But that was the problem, he was almost afraid of what he would find.

Julius drummed his fingers against the table, glancing over at the clock. There was nothing else he could do, Nunnally would be asleep for a few hours more and Euphemia would be busy for most of the day. That left just him and C.C. since Suzaku was too far out of his reach. He shot the woman a quick glance before shaking his head.

There wouldn’t be any sharing with Suzaku this time, he was on his own. Julius stared at the pile, taking a deep breath before reaching out and taking the book on the top of the stack.

* * *

Kaguya smiled at the stewardess as she moved past, quickly turning her attention back to her cousin. Suzaku was slumped against side of the plane, looking more half asleep than awake. Every once and a while his head would jerk slightly, like he was on the verge of waking up, but then his head would sink back down. She was tempted to reach over and shake his shoulder, but she didn’t want to disturb him if he was actually sleeping. After all, they two of them had been up all night, running around after the ghost.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. She was already struggling to stay awake, but she didn’t dare fall asleep. Not with the way that Suzaku was acting.

She watched Suzaku out of the corner of his eye, biting her lip when he twitched in his sleep. Kaguya wasn’t sure if her cousin was fully recovered from whatever the ghost had done to him. She couldn’t imagine Suzaku agreeing to the scheme that the ghost had made. It was impossible to kill a ghost, but Suzaku had been willing to dress up as Zero and attempt it. He had been just as willing to attack Julius when Lelouch had changed his mind.

Kaguya bit her lip, stopping when she tasted blood. It was hard to figure out what the ghost had done because she hadn’t been conscious for most of it. Or she had, but it had been like she was sleepwalking. She could remember bits and pieces, like trying to hold Lelouch off while Nunnally and C.C. ran for the door, but the next thing she remembered was C.C. shaking her in the great hall.

She squeezed her eyes closed, tracking over the missing time as she tried to remember. All she could get were flashes of someone in white walking in front of her and a single phrase.

_“Kaguya, I order you to come quietly.”_

She shivered and sat bolt upright, looking around the plane. The order didn’t carry the same urgency as it once had, in fact it was already hard for her to remember the exact phrasing of it. The whole thing was almost like a bad dream.

Kaguya frowned and turned her head, intending to look out the window of the plane. Instead, she found herself staring at her cousin.

It was hard to tell if Suzaku was completely awake, which made his stare all the more disconcerting. She swallowed and reached out to tap his shoulder, jerking her arm back when Suzaku sat upright abruptly. He glanced around him like he couldn’t remember where he was, his knuckles going white from where he gripped the armrests tightly.

Kaguya let him look around, almost afraid to reach out and touch him again. She had expected being tired or being worn out after the ghost had used him, but not this kind of forgetfulness.

Maybe she should have argued harder when Suzaku had come to her and said that they had to go back to Japan. Resting for another day wouldn’t have hurt either of them, and it would have given her another day to watch Suzaku in the villa before letting him out in public with the lingering effects of being under Lelouch’s control. But she had been just as tired of the place as Suzaku was. It had been a hard few days of working with only a few hours of sleep and the constant sensation of someone watching them. That combined with the back to back jobs that they’d had over the past month had made her eager to return home and get some well-deserved rest.

It had been too easy to just assume that Suzaku was as exhausted as she was. But, now that she was looking at him closely, there was definitely something different about him. He didn’t move like her cousin did and his sweeps of the plane were different. It was more like he was checking for exits and danger than looking for ghosts or whatever had disturbed him. And then there was the look in Suzaku’s eyes, the distant and cold look.

She shrunk back in her seat as he relaxed again, groping for her seatbelt as she planned to put distance between them. Her carry on bag was just above her and easy enough to reach. There were a few things left over from the villa, hopefully enough to get rid of the ghost who had obviously used Suzaku to leave the place. For all she knew, she was sitting in the presence of one of Lelouch’s victims, the ghost so desperate to escape that they hadn’t bothered to notice that Lelouch was gone.

Kaguya slid her thumb against the button of the seatbelt, her eyes widening as she saw Suzaku relax back into his regular posture. His shoulders slumped forward as he dropped his head into his hands. Suzaku rubbed at his face for a moment before he looked back over at her out of the corner of his eye.

Suzaku was silent for a moment before he lifted his head slightly. “I’m not possessed.”

Kaguya huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Convince me.”

“There were no other ghosts in that house, and you know it.”

“That didn’t stop the one ghost that was there from taking control of you.”

“That’s not possession.”

“Then what was it?” It took effort to keep her voice low. Kaguya leaned forward to glare at her cousin, expecting Suzaku to wave her worry away and back down like he always did.

Instead, Suzaku met her gaze, his shoulders slumping a little more before he shook his head. “I…I don’t know myself. But I’m not going to do that again.”

“How do you know that?”

Suzaku opened his mouth to answer, but ended up shaking his head. Kaguya felt her stomach twist in fear. She reached out to grab his hand, squeezing it tightly in her own.

She thought she had lost him once before, back when Lucille had reported him missing. It had been a relief to see him again, even if the ghost had twisted him into something that Suzaku never would have been. Kaguya was almost glad that she had missed most of it, because it would have been horrible to watch one of the two people she considered her family be taken away from her.

Kaguya carefully twined their fingers together, holding Suzaku’s hand tightly. “We’ll find someone who can help. If my father can’t do it then he’ll know someone who can. It can’t be too hard to find someone. You can’t be the only one that this happened to.”

She wasn’t expecting the bark of laughter, surprised by the sound because it sounded so unlike her cousin. Kaguya almost let go of his hand, but she held on in case it grounded him. She didn’t get a chance to see if it worked because Suzaku calmed down, her cousin biting his lip to keep himself quiet. For a moment, she thought she saw the flicker of something around his irises. She leaned forward for a better look, but Suzaku leaned back in his seat.

He closed his eyes, breathing heavily until whatever had happened had passed. Then he opened one eye, Kaguya getting a brief glimpse of red around his iris before it disappeared. Suzaku offered her an apologetic smile. “This isn’t something that you can fix. I don’t really think anyone can fix it.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We do nothing. This is something I have to do.”

Kaguya narrowed her eyes, looking her cousin up and down. She didn’t like it when Suzaku avoided telling her things, but she hadn’t found a way to get it out of him. She had never been able to charm Suzaku like she had other people, probably because he had practically grown up with her. He was stubborn enough to keep it to himself and leave her guessing, which is what worried her the most. She wouldn’t know if something was wrong unless she watched him carefully.

She worked her fingers away from his, trying to ignore the way that he didn’t seem to notice. Suzaku had gone back to looking out the window, his body language all wrong again.

Kaguya licked her lips, wishing that she could push him more, but she doubted that Suzaku would answer her questions. He had already made up his mind, and he was going to be stubborn. It was enough to make her wish that her aunt was round. Kotori would have been able to get Suzaku to talk to her and she would have definitely been able to get him to give up his crazy idea, but her aunt wasn’t there. It was just her and Kaguya felt that she was over her head.

She drummed her fingers against the armrest before she gave up any ideas of talking Suzaku out of whatever he would do. The only way left to get through to him would be to see what he was planning to do, no matter how much Kaguya thought it was a bad idea.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, feeling exhaustion roll over her. They might have been halfway through the flight, but it was still a long way home. Despite her exhaustion, Kaguya wasn’t willing to sleep, not until she was sure about her cousin. She wasn’t even sure she would be able to sleep when they got back home. For all she knew, whatever was wrong with him would make him act in ways that she couldn’t predict.

Kaguya reached up to rub her shoulder, trying to ease some of the tension out of it. She gave up when the seat didn’t allow her to move much, Kaguya rolling her eyes and glancing back at Suzaku. “So what are _you_ going to do?”

Suzaku sighed, turning his head to look at her. Kaguya was relieved to see her cousin looking more like himself. She didn’t know who or what the other person was, but they made her uneasy. Kaguya was willing to bet that Suzaku knew that too because it looked like he was struggling to maintain his usual mannerisms. It was almost enough for her to tell him to stop and give it up. If he was just hurting himself more then there was no point. But her cousin wouldn’t give up that easily, which would probably make it worse for himself.

Her cousin took a while to answer her question. His gaze drifted back to the window twice before he finally answered her question. “I think I should take a year off.”

Kaguya tipped her head to the side. “And you think that this can be solved in a year?”

“I hope it can.” Suzaku shrugged. “It might be better to stick close to home.”

At least that was something that they could both agree on. Kaguya was more than willing to keep Suzaku around the house instead of having him rush off to all corners of the world. She didn’t know how jet lag and fighting off what looked suspiciously like possession would do to him when they were on a job.

She nodded in agreement with him. “Okay, so we take the year off.”

Suzaku’s eyes widened. “You don’t have to. It’s my fault this happened to me and-”

“We’re a team, so we’ll stick together. You might want to do this on your own, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let you suffer on your own.” Kaguya grinned at the shock on his face before she sat back. “So we take the year off. If anyone really needs anything then I can step in, but there are plenty of others that can help out. It’s about time we took the time to scale it back.”

She thought she saw a glimpse of a smile before it was gone, replaced with the cold look. Suzaku shook his head a moment later, the look disappearing as soon as it had come. He cleared his throat and looked out the window again.

It was very clear that the discussion was over, not that it had helped Kaguya settle her unease. At least there was a plan to it, a year off to see if Suzaku could handle whatever was happening to him on his own. And, if he wasn’t ready by the end of the year, then she would call in everyone she knew to make sure that the problem could be solved. She had lost too many members of her family to just let Suzaku slip by her too.

Kaguya resettled herself in her chair, leaning back so she could watch him out of the corner of her eye without noticing. She must have given herself away somehow, because she saw the corner of his mouth twitch up before he rested a hand over top of hers. Kaguya was surprised by the motion, but let it stay there. It was a tenuous connection to her cousin, but she would take what she could get. If she couldn’t help him any other way, then she would settle for letting him hold onto her.

* * *

Euphemia sighed as she walked into the entrance hall of the Aries Villa. She gave the place a wary glance, almost expecting the ghost to come drifting out of one of the halls. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Kaguya and Suzaku to tell the truth, it was just strange to think about the Aries Villa without its resident ghost.

She reached out to skim her fingers over the top of one of the tables that had been set by the door, tipping her head back to look at the ceiling.  There were still parts of the paint that looked patchy, but the villa didn’t look like it had been totally abandoned for years. It looked like a house that could be used, although Euphemia wasn’t sure what she wanted to use it for yet. She doubted that anyone would want to take it considering the reputation. Maybe in a few years and definitely not when she had just finished her duties at the cemeteries of Pendragon.

It had been a long day of giving speeches and visited the cemeteries in remembrance of those who had died at the hands of the Demon Emperor. Euphemia didn’t mind, but it was exhausting seeing all of the people and talking to them. The Demon Emperor had left a strong legacy behind him, one that Euphemia felt looking over her every day. It was hard to rule with Zero holding the proverbial sword of Damocles over her head. The anniversary of Lelouch’s death was one of the days that she felt it the most.

She sighed and lifted her hand from the table. She was safe for the moment, Zero had gone back to the palace, probably just as exhausted as she was. The day was just as much of a celebration of the position as it was the death of Emperor Lelouch. Euphemia was sure that it was quite a shock to suddenly be the center of attention after spending the rest of the year lurking in the shadows. She didn’t begrudge Zero the time to spend some time on their own, if she hadn’t been called out to the villa then she would have been doing the same. It was the one time of year that she was left alone for nearly the entire day.

The sound of footsteps echoing in the hall made her jump, Euphemia turning her head to watch the hallway that led to the great hall and the library. She narrowed her eyes as she watched someone emerge from the shadows, her heart pounding fast even as she recognized her cousin. For a moment, in the dim lighting of the house, she had thought that he was Lelouch.

Euphemia shook her head and walked forward to meet Julius. She smiled and reached out to pull him into a hug, hearing him make a surprised noise. She hugged him tighter for a moment more before letting go. Euphemia glanced around, surprised not to see that Nunnally wasn’t following after him.

Julius looked behind him, Euphemia seeing his eyes widen before he shook his head. “Nunnally is back at the palace. She’s still exhausted from last night.”

“Was it bad?”

Her cousin didn’t answer for a moment, his gaze straying off to the stairs before it snapped back to her. When Julius smiled at her, it looked genuine enough, but she had a gut feeling that he was just trying to make her feel better. He raised one shoulder in a shrug before meeting her gaze. “He was reluctant to leave.”

She opened her mouth to demand more of an answer from him, but she quickly snapped it shut. Julius didn’t look like he was going to expand on what he had said. In fact, he looked reluctant to.

Euphemia looked around the front hall, trying to pick out anything that would give her a clue to what had happened in the villa. As far as she could see, there weren’t any obvious marks of a struggle or a fight. It was very possible that Julius felt uncomfortable with the idea of a ghost, but she didn’t think that was the case.

She tapped the toe of her shoe against the floor. She wouldn’t be getting any more information out of Julius, but that wouldn’t stop her from getting to the bottom of what had happened. It would be easy enough to find Nunnally and talk to her about it. Nunnally was usually more willing to talk than her brother.

Euphemia gave the hall one more glance before smiling at Julius. “So the ghost is gone?”

Julius gave a curt nod, Euphemia not surprised by his reluctance. He crossed his arms over his chest, Euphemia watching as his fingers beat out a quick rhythm on his arm before Julius realized what he was doing. Julius curled his fingers in, looking away from her. “He’s gone. Suzaku and Kaguya did a sweep of the place before they left.” Julius swallowed and looked away from her. “Something came up back in Japan.”

That wasn’t the truth, but Euphemia let it slide for the moment. She offered him a smile and stepped forward to take his arm.

It didn’t take much to get Julius to move, just a slight tug of his arm and he was walking beside her. Euphemia leaned against him for a moment before looking around the villa. Without the ghost it felt different, not so close and ominous, or that might have been the clear day. It was warm for September, or warmer than she would usually expect from a manmade oasis in the middle of the desert.

She took a better hold of Julius’ arm, letting him lead her down the hall. She didn’t know where he was going, but she was willing to just let him walk, anything that would start to loosen his tongue.

Euphemia took the chance to look around the villa now it was cleaned and clear. She smiled at the sight of the polished suits of armor standing at attention down the hall. “I’m sorry I missed them, I would have liked to thank them for their hard work. It couldn’t have been easy chasing Lelouch away, I heard he could be quite stubborn.”

Euphemia felt the wince from her cousin, but she ignored it. It would be better to pretend that everything was fine until Julius decided to talk. “I’ll just have to send them a thank you note, although that seems too little compared to what they’ve done.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Of course you don’t.” Euphemia laughed. “It’ll have to do. I just wished that I could have talked to them. Couldn’t have you delayed them?”

She was sure that he tensed at that. If she hadn’t been walking then he would have stopped dead. Euphemia looked back up at him in time to see her cousin clear his throat.

“I didn’t see them leave either. C- Lucille came and told me.”

“Ah.” Euphemia looked back down the hallway, pulling them to a stop between the great hall and the library. She thought she saw Julius glance over his shoulder at the great hall before he dropped his gaze to the floor. She raised an eyebrow, but let it slide. Euphemia sighed and glanced around the hall. “Well, that’s one more thing I can’t put off anymore. It’s time to figure out what to do with this old place.”

“Do…do you already have an idea?”

Euphemia shrugged. “I was going to make it the new refugee center since the old one is too small for their purposes, but Gino Weinberg beat me to it. His father was a big supporter of the noble’s cause, but Gino gave the manor to the staff of the refugee center directly as soon as the man died.”

“It took this long to go through?”

“Legal things. His father’s lawyer wanted to make sure that Gino knew what he was doing and then try and shame him back into honoring his father’s wishes.” Euphemia shrugged. “He’s off to join the Knightmare division of the UFN’s Peace Corps.”

“The Black Knights?” Julius sounded impressed. “Does he know Captain Kozuki will eat him alive?”

“I think he’s looking forward to it.” Euphemia laughed. “But with that arranged, that means that I’ve lost one of my options. I could always turn this old place into an orphanage or something else that the city needs, but I would need to look into it. To do that I would need to have a few hours to myself.”

Euphemia was glad that Julius didn’t ask why she didn’t ask someone else to do it for her. Then again, it might not have ever occurred to him. As far as she knew, Julius had always done everything for himself. The Kingsleys might have had a strange mix of royal privileges and rights that the common people had, but their use of them had decreased over the years. The only thing that Julius’ parents had retained were a few bodyguards, and those had been used more for positions for friends than truly as bodyguards. But the lack of a question also meant that Julius understood. This was a project that she wanted to do for herself, not to just shove off on someone else.

She was jolted out of her thoughts when Julius cleared his throat. “Before you start looking into that, there’s something that you need to see.”

Euphemia gave him a concerned look but allowed her cousin to guide her to the library. She glanced at the old doors, tipping her head when she saw that they were already partially open. That didn’t stop Julius from letting go of her arm to open one all the way for her. She nodded her thanks at him and stepped through, taking a look at the library.

It looked like the last time she had been in the Aries Villa, save for the two tables that were piled high with books. She started over toward the tables, picking up one of the books. She raised her eyebrows when she saw that it was one of Empress Nunnally’s diaries. She turned back to look at her cousin, watching as he shrugged.

“I was doing some research on the villa and…” Julius paused for a moment before shaking his head. “That isn’t what I wanted to show you.”

Euphemia was about to ask what he had in mind, all thoughts of teasing him disappearing as Julius reached behind one of the stacks of books. He grappled with something before he lifted an armful of folded fabric and placed it on the books. Euphemia took a step forward, her eyes widening as he lifted a familiar mask up onto the books.

She crossed the distance between them quickly, reaching out only to stop just short of touching the mask. She glanced over at Julius, expecting to see a smug look on his face. Instead, his face was blank, like he was still waiting for her reaction. Euphemia reached out to brush her fingers over the mask, shaking her head. “I…Is this a replica?”

“No. At least not that we can tell.” Julius stepped up beside her, but he kept his hands tucked behind his back and his body angled away from the mask. “Suzaku and Kaguya found this in the course of their investigations, but forgot about it with the ghost. They did leave it where Lucille could find it. She’s out at the moment trying to get someone to come and look at it to start the verification process. But she believes that it’s the original outfit of the second Zero, the one who killed Lelouch.”

Euphemia looked at the folded uniform, tempted to reach out and touch it, but she didn’t dare. If there was a chance that what she was looking at was the real thing, she didn’t want to skew any test results when a professional did come in to look at it. She dropped down to look at the mask on its level. She studied the mask and the clothes for a short while before straightening up and looking her cousin. “What do you think?”

“It’s real. Or I think it is.” Julius cleared his throat and circled around to the other side of the table. “While we were carrying it over here we saw the bloodstains in places that made sense. If they can get a sample, then we can get a definite answer. If not,” Julius shrugged, “then we’ll have to rely on other methods. As far as I can see, it matches the pictures of the event. I haven’t looked at too many of them, but it’s nothing like some of the later uniforms. And I can’t think of one instance where the uniform would be allowed to stay bloody.”

She tipped her head to acknowledge the point, but she agreed with him. It would be better to wait for someone with more experience before they let their imaginations run away with them. It would be worse to get excited about something that wouldn’t be. For all they knew, it was one of Lance’s early designs when he had changed the design for his Zero.

She gave the clothes one last look before stepping away. “This is amazing. I would have thought that the museum people would have found it before while they were cleaning the place out.”

“I doubt they would have. Do you want to see where it was?”

Euphemia nodded eagerly and turned away from the table. She fully expected him to turn and start heading up to the attic. She had heard from the museum teams that they hadn’t scoured the attic like they should have because they had run out of time. It was the only place she could think of that would have hidden the uniform for so long.

To her surprise, Julius turned and started walking over to one of the bookshelves. She tilted her head to the side, watching as he stared at the books. He walked his hand long the shelf, tugging at a few of the books without any success.

Euphemia pressed a hand to her mouth when she heard Lelouch mutter something under his breath before he finally managed to find what he was looking for.

The book tipped forward evenly, Euphemia’s attention taken by the click that followed it. She stepped closer to the bookshelf, staring as it shifted back and then off to the side, revealing a passage that sloped slightly down.

Euphemia glanced at Julius before making her way over to the passage. She reached in to touch the stone, expecting it to be wet but her hand came away dry. She stuck her head into the passage, seeing the bare wires and the light bulbs that were strung up. She leaned back up and raised an eyebrow at her cousin.

Julius came to stand beside her, staring into the passage. She noticed the way he tried to angle his body away from the place. She shifted to give him more room, letting her cousin look around. He nodded and took a step back. “I think Lucille found this one.”

“And you found the uniform down here?”

“The others did, but yes.”

Euphemia shook her head. She had been walked through the villa before and she was aware that the house had a basement, but it wasn’t carved from the stone. Euphemia found herself wondering if the basement extended under the library, all she knew was that she didn’t extend under the great hall because that part had been built later. Now that she was looking at the passage, she doubted that the basement went under the library. If anything, the passage under the library might have been made out of the fill that had been used to get rid of the crater that had been old Pendragon.

She reached out to touch the wall again, rapping her knuckles against it just to reassure herself that the walls were solid, breathing a sigh of relief when she couldn’t hear a hollow sound. So the whole thing was solid and wired for electricity, which meant that the whole thing had been built purposefully.

Euphemia took a cautious step into the passage, chuckling when it was solid underneath her feet. She spun back around to look at Julius, grinning at him. “Can we go down here?”

He shrugged, which was enough of an answer for her. She turned back around and walked down the passage, making sure to keep one hand on the wall. The slope was gentle enough that she didn’t have to use the wall to keep herself steady, but Euphemia needed the solidity of the wall to remind herself that it was all real. More than that, it gave her the chance to keep tabs on the passage as she walked down it.

When she was a child, all of the old manors had been interesting only because of their secret passages. There had been something fun about the chance to squeeze through tiny passages, something like a mystery.

The passage she was in was nothing like those secret passages of her imagination. It moved slowly down and was wide, obviously made to accommodate something large. Euphemia mentally compared it to the size of Nunnally’s wheelchair, nodding to herself when the passage looked like Nunnally to fit through it. With the size of the passage and the lights, it was obvious that it had been used often at one point, although probably not since Richard had come to the throne. So maybe it had been something Lucille had kept up only as a matter of course.

The question then became what the passage had been used for. It looked like it could have been an escape route, probably for Emperor Lance in the last days of his reign. It would make sense that Zero’s outfit had been found down the passage. Lance might have tried to store it away for a chance to promoting one of his other friends to Zero after Lionel Strickland had been killed, but had just never gotten the chance.

She was still turning the ideas over in her mind as she came to the end of the passage, Euphemia gaping at the large chamber that had opened up. She lifted her hand from the wall and stepped out into the open, staring at the open space.

There was no way that it had been an escape route, not when the chamber was an oval shape and the walls were smooth. She reached out to touch the wall, her gaze lingering on the mannequin that was standing nearly in the center of the room. The thing was bare, but it didn’t take too much to figure out what had been on it.

She crossed the room to touch the mannequin’s shoulder, feeling the stuffing give under her fingers. Euphemia squeezed it before turning around to look at Julius. “This is where they found it?”

Julius was still lingering by the entrance to the chamber. His gaze kept jerking to something on the floor. Whatever distracted him didn’t last long, Euphemia seeing him nod to himself before stepping out into the chamber. He followed her path, keeping close to the wall before he had to step out into the open. He glanced at the ground one last time before he reached her.

He reached out to touch the mannequin, jerking his hand back at the last minute. Julius shrugged, tucking his hands behind his back again. “I think so. They just showed me this.”

Euphemia hummed to herself, running her fingers over the mannequin. It was strange to think something so historically important had been hidden just beneath the Aries Villa. It made her wonder what other secret passages had been built into the building, from when it had been brought over from Japan and while Emperor Lance had used it. What other things were they missing?

She turned her head as Julius touched her arm. Her cousin tugged her away from the mannequin, stepping around it.

Euphemia’s gaze darted over to a small table that had been set up near one of the walls. She saw the remains of candles and what looked like an empty picture frame. She frowned and went to take a step forward when Julius touched her shoulder. When she looked back at him, he shook his head and gestured with his other hand towards the ground.

She followed the motion, freezing when she saw the two slabs on the ground. Euphemia took a short step forward, dropping into a crouch so she could better read the inscriptions on the two slabs.

Suzaku Kururugi  
2000-2080  
A loyal and consummate knight to her Royal Highness Princess Euphemia li Britannia and his Imperial Majesty Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of Britannia.  
Brave knight, beloved friend and protector of Pax Britannia.

Lelouch vi Britannia  
1999-2018  
Beloved brother, Zero and 99th Emperor of Britannia.  
To you who brought peace to the rest of the world, may you rest in peace.

Euphemia swallowed and turned her head to look at Julius. “What is this?”

Julius shrugged, but the motion seemed half-hearted. She noticed that his gaze lingered on Suzaku’s slab before it moved away, Julius glancing around the room before settling on staring at the table. “They found this with the uniform.”

“Is Lucille asking about this as well?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t say anything about them, just that they were interesting.” Julius hesitated, swaying in place for a moment. “Nunnally did say there was strange about Lelouch’s mausoleum, but I didn’t get the full story out of her.”

Euphemia nodded, her gaze going back to the two slabs. There had been a few strange reports from the mausoleum cleanup crew, but nothing that had caught her attention long enough; there had always been something more important. Now she regretted her lack of attention. There was something here, she felt it, but she didn’t have enough information.

She sighed and stood up, brushing off her skirts. Euphemia contemplated the slabs from her new vantage point. It wasn’t only the presence of one for Emperor Lelouch, but also one for the Knight of Zero. Japan still maintained the honor of having their most notorious son buried there. She didn’t think that the Prime Minister would mind a formal request for a check, not when there was evidence like this. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner they could put out an official report and the less time the rest of the world would spend speculating on what was really below the slabs. No one wanted a panic about where the Demon Emperor was buried, or the rumors of a magical power that he had possessed to come back.

She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She wanted to believe that Suzaku Kururugi was buried in Japan and Lelouch was safe underneath his own mausoleum, it was familiar and comfortable knowledge.

“So, what are you going to do with this place now?”

The question startled her out of her thoughts, Euphemia glancing at her cousin. He still wasn’t looking at the slabs or at her, he was looking at the table, although Euphemia doubted that he saw it. Obviously there was something about the room that bothered him, but Euphemia doubted that he would tell her. Julius would probably keep everything to himself until there was proof about what was under the slabs.

The slabs themselves presented another problem. Euphemia wasn’t going to let the mystery go unsolved, which meant that any plans for the Aries Villa would have to wait until the investigations had run their course. Of course, if there were people buried under the slabs, then any plans she had would have to be scrapped. She couldn’t imagine just giving the villa away when something so valuable was buried underneath it, especially if there were bodies under the slabs and the inscriptions turned out to be true.

She bit her lip, turning the question over in her mind for a moment before sighing. “It depends on what we find.”

“And if these aren’t fake?”

There was something in the way that Julius asked the question that made Euphemia wonder if Julius already knew the answer. She tipped her head to the side before ignoring the way that it had sounded.

She shrugged and clasped her hands behind her back. “Then I don’t think this place should go anywhere. I wouldn’t want it to. These are here for a reason and, if that is Lelouch, then doesn’t make sense to move him to a place where he would just be in danger. The same goes for Suzaku. It would be better for everyone if things remained the same.”

“You’d keep this place a secret?”

“Yes.” Euphemia turned to look at him, offering Julius a smile. “Don’t you think it’s time we let him rest in peace? I certainly do. I don’t want to have to deal with his ghost for longer than I have to. Don’t you agree?”

She got a shrug as an answer, but that was good enough for her. She was sure that Julius would come around in the end, even if it took him a while. Euphemia was used too his stubbornness to try and press him further. Nothing would get Julius to disagree with her faster than arguing and trying to bend his opinion her way. The path of least resistance was the best for dealing with Julius, mostly because he never seemed to expect it.

Euphemia sighed, giving the slabs one last look. “I’ll have to think about it for a bit longer, but I have time to wait. A few more months won’t hurt.”

He grumbled something that Euphemia chose to ignore. She had made up her mind about the place for the time being, and she was more than willing to wait. She was sure that Julius would call her on lying to the people, but Euphemia didn’t intend to keep silent about what was under the Aries Villa longer than necessary. She would present the people with the truth and anything else would cause her more problems. Her first priority was making sure that the growing rift between the former nobles and the rest of the country didn’t blossom into war.

She reached for Julius’ arm, surprised when he turned away from her. Euphemia turned to watch him, tipping her head to the side when she saw him approach the slabs. He rooted around in his pocket for a moment before taking out something pink. She didn’t get a good look at the thing before Julius knelt down, placing the pink thing on Lelouch’s grave, Euphemia surprised by the gesture. She hadn’t expected her cousin to pay his respects, especially since they didn’t know if it was actually Lelouch’s grave or not. And especially not since Lelouch had hurt his sister.

Julius remained kneeling, his head turning to stare at Suzaku’s slab. He reached out for it, Julius running his fingers over the edge of the slab almost tenderly. He seemed to remember himself a moment later, Julius jerking his hand back and standing up abruptly. Julius turned on his heel and started walking back up the passage.

Euphemia frowned and looked back at the slab. There was a pink crane left behind on Lelouch’s slab, just like the ones that had been left by Nunnally in Lelouch’s mausoleum. Euphemia smiled to herself, leaning over to straighten the crane’s wing. She allowed herself to linger over the crane for a moment more before standing up. She would have to call the museums and ask them to check up on the underground chamber, not only for the slabs but to make sure that the chamber was safe. If it was going to become the center of a new investigation, she didn’t want to risk the professionals that would be brought in.

She strode off after Julius, not having to walk too fast to catch up with him. It looked like he had stopped in the middle of the passage, staring back up towards the library. It was easy to take his arm and start processing up the passage with him, especially since Julius didn’t try to stop her. He just walked quietly alongside her, his gaze fixed on the top of the passage.

The two of them walked in silence for a while, Euphemia letting Julius have the time to think over what they had found. Euphemia wasn’t naïve enough to believe that nothing would change after the discovery, but she doubted that the whole world would change once the announcement went out. She could deal with anything that came in its wake, but she was sure that Julius and Nunnally would just fade into the background and she might be too busy to follow up on them. She bit her lip, letting her mind rove over her own options before she turned her attention to Julius.

Her cousin was staring up at the square that was the door back into the library, not paying attention to the passageway they were walking up. She doubted that Julius really saw the library above them, his mind was somewhere far away. She squeezed his arm, letting Julius take his time in looking at her. When he did swing his head her way, Euphemia gave him an encouraging nod. “So, the villa is all taken care of, which means Nunnally can go back to her work. What will you do?”

“Work on getting us that townhouse.” Julius gave her a smile, the expression looking steadier than it had for a while. “I think we’re both ready to move out of the palace.”

“You’re always welcome.”

“I know, but we’re not royalty. It’s…strange.”

Julius stopped to let her walk through the hidden door first. Euphemia nodded at him, stepping neatly to the side to allow him through.

He slid through, turning quickly to activate the panel again. Euphemia was sure that she saw him heave a sigh of relief when the bookshelf settled back into place. Julius’ hand lingered on the book for a moment before he turned around abruptly. He gave her a long look before walking back over to where Zero’s mask and suit rested on the table.

Julius skimmed his hand over the stacks of books, stopping himself just before he got back to the uniform. She thought she saw him frown, but he turned away before she could really see his expression. “It’ll be good to get things back to normal. I’ve missed it.”

“So you’ll go back to writing articles?”

Julius nodded, pushing away from the table. “Along with another project.”

Euphemia smiled to herself. That sounded more like her cousin and it looked like he was starting to relax. Knowing him, he had probably spent the entire night before pacing his room while he waited for Nunnally to come back. With the ghost gone for good, he would be fine. Although, with the way that he was looking around the library, she was sure that neither she nor Nunnally wouldn’t be seeing him for a while.

All the time around the villa must have gotten Julius interested in the old place. The discovery of the two slabs below the library and Zero’s uniform must have just helped his interest along. She was more than willing to let Julius have a free rein on the subject, he was bound to be just as tenacious as the others that would come on the project. And maybe it would be good to have him on the project. He might protest that the Kingsley were no longer royalty, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t family.

“Well, this library and the one at the palace are always open to you.”

Julius might have muttered a thanks, but Euphemia didn’t hear it. He had already turned back towards the books, staring to pick them up off of their piles. Euphemia watched him for a moment before letting him get on with it. Julius wouldn’t mind showing her around, but it was obvious that he wanted to get back to his research, whatever it might be.

She gave him a wave that she doubted would be noticed and walked out of the library. Euphemia reached behind her to ease the doors shut with a sigh. She leaned back against the doors for a moment, taking a deep breath.

It was tempting to rush back off to the palace and call on all the experts. What was really under the slabs was too tempting to just be left alone, but she wouldn’t do it. Lucille was already working with at least one of them on Zero’s uniform, which would be a discovery enough for the day, everything else could wait. The better idea would be to call them into a conference and pool their resources.

She was tempted to put Julius in charge of the whole thing, but she doubted that he would agree. Her cousin tended to work better alone and there was no guaranteeing that he would stick with the project. After all, she didn’t know exactly what he was researching, he might not need to stick around for the whole thing. She would let him do his own research and come to his own conclusions, some magazine would like that.

But all of that would have to wait for at least another few days. With such a high profile project, it would be smart to take their time and make no mistakes. The whole affair had waited for one hundred years, it wouldn’t hurt for it to wait for another few months.

Euphemia nodded to herself and walked towards the entrance hall. She was sure that she wasn’t imagining that the atmosphere in the house felt lighter. The ghost was gone to his rest, meaning that any malevolence had left with him. And maybe that was another good reason to leave the graves in the chamber alone for a little while longer. There was no need to tempt fate, not with Lelouch finally gone to his rest.

She smiled to herself, tipping her head up to look up at the ceiling of the entrance hall. Things seemed to be falling nicely into place, something that Euphemia found had been rare during her reign. She was used to more of a fight or a struggle. Or maybe that time was just coming soon, which meant that she would just have to enjoy the calm before the storm while she could. Today, she would rest and let Lucille work. Tomorrow, she would start work on ferreting out the mysteries left behind in the Aries Villa. Until then, she would leave the villa to its new calm and her cousin to his research.


	13. Epilogue: A Kinder, Gentler World

“‘I think, sir, when Holmes fell over that cliff, he may not have killed himself, but all the same he was never quite the same man afterwards.’”  
- _The Truth about Sherlock Holmes_ , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

* * *

_The joint announcement from Japanese Prime Minister Nagisa Tohdoh and Britannian Queen Euphemia li Britannia has succeeded in stunning the world._

_The last time these two powerhouses joined together, it was in the release of the names of the people who had served as Zero. Japan received two shocks, the first being that the mystery of what happened to Prime Minister Kaname Ohgi’s first daughter, Noriko Ohgi was finally solved. Noriko had gone to serve as part of Empress Nunnally’s elite guard, only to be listed among the missing during Emperor Lance vi Britannia’s overhaul of his mother’s government. New information from Britannia released by Queen Euphemia’s edict earlier this year revealed that Noriko Ohgi served as Zero and was killed in that capacity. At the time of the initial announcement, her body had not been found but promises were made to return her to Japan as soon as it had been discovered._

_The news that the Zero that had killed the Demon Emperor was Suzaku Kururugi, former Knight of Zero, was perhaps more shocking than the news about Noriko Ohgi. Best known for his quick rise to Knight of Seven and then his sudden switch to Lelouch’s side, Suzaku Kururugi was well known for his abilities in piloting the Knightmare Frame Lancelot. It was assumed that Sir Kururugi died when the Lancelot exploded in the Battle of Mount Fuji and was buried in the Aoyama Cemetery in the Britannian section._

_Under pressure from the public, Prime Minister Tohdoh called for the disinterment of Sir Kururugi’s grave. The project proved that the list of Zeros was true as they found an empty coffin in the grave. Formal searches were made for all known areas that the Knight of Zero could have been buried, including the Kururugi Shrine. Current resident, Kaguya Sumeragi, helped with the search although she admitted that the graves around the shrine and the fields that surrounded it had always been well marked._

_After a failed search, the team started to look for people that could have stolen the body, a search that was brought to an abrupt stop by the announcement that Emperor Lelouch’s body did not reside in his mausoleum. A joint mission was proposed to identify the missing graves, a project that spanned most of this year._

_The search was rewarded earlier this week when the graves of Suzaku Kururugi and Lelouch vi Britannia were found in the same place. Genetic testing was carried out that proved the two bodies found were the bodies of the Demon Emperor and his knight. Photographs followed of the inscriptions on their graves as well as the bodies themselves. All information on the search will be revealed to the public in the coming weeks as the reports are written up, save for the location of the bodies themselves. The team say that they have sworn to keep the location a secret until they are allowed to release the information._

_When asked for a reason, Prime Minister Tohdoh was silent, but Queen Euphemia was more than willing to speak up on the subject._

_In an early morning interview, she addressed the public on this issue. “I think knowing that their bodies are still around is enough, especially considering the hard work the staff in the Avalon and Aoyama Cemetery do to keep the two graves in good condition. I am not naïve enough to believe that the two bodies will allowed to be left alone. Of course it matters what they have done, but the two of them are long dead. The minds that caused so much pain to the world have gone on, leaving the bodies behind. It’s not only my wish, but the wish of Empress Nunnally. She requested that the bodies of her brother and his knight remain in secret so they could rest in peace and I will honor her wishes.”_

_Emperor Lelouch’s mausoleum in Avalon Cemetery and Sir Kururugi’s grave in Aoyama Cemetery will remain open to the public as they have before. Further work on discovering Noriko Ohgi’s body will continue when the bulk of the official reports on the other graves have finished._

The news reporter cleared her throat, about to start on the next report when Suzaku reached over to turn the sound down. He had turned on the television just to have something other than the sound of himself moving through the house, but he hadn’t been paying it much attention. It was hard to focus on the news when his cousin had called him halfway through the story. Suzaku was sure that he had missed a good portion of it, but he would caught up later, once he was done with his work.

He adjusted the phone against his ear as he moved around the house. “Kaguya, I’m offering to help.”

“That’s what I have the rest of them for. They’re all over here for training and research is part of it.”

“I can work back up.”

“You could, but your year isn’t up, and I promised you a year.” Suzaku sighed, sure that Kaguya didn’t hear him. That or she ignored him, which was becoming a pattern with her. “Besides this seems like a bad area to have you in. It’s working with victims of the FLEIJA, and I don’t think Sir Kururugi would be happy with that.”

Suzaku snorted, but didn’t bother correcting her. She was started calling the memories of the past Suzaku by that name, like they were a second part of him. Suzaku was sure she understood how it worked, considering she had sat through the lecture that Uncle Yataro had given him on what a risk he had run. He hadn’t known what to call what had happened to him, but it was close enough to possession that Suzaku had gotten the standard lecture. He didn’t need the repeat from Kaguya every time he tried to push for something a bit more. Then again, that’s what he got for having an overprotective family.

He glanced at the television before walking back out of the kitchen, heading for the library. “We’ll be fine.”

“So you say. But don’t you have work to do back home? I remember something about the graves in the fields.”

Suzaku groaned at the reminder, stopping to lean against the wall. From his position in the hall he could see the garden out of the windows and the start of the fields below.

It had been his ongoing project since he had managed to figure out how to deal with the extra set of memories. Ever since the team had come to search for Sir Kururugi’s grave there had been a fuss about the graves down in the fields. It had been enough to stop the proposed construction, which was good, but it meant that Kaguya had something to keep him at home.

There were records of the graves in various states and Kaguya was pushing for a full review. These were their responsibility, and they had let them go for too long. After all, it couldn’t be too hard for him to read through the old records and check on the graves themselves. Kaguya had judged the whole project suitable for him. There were a few rare things that Sir. Kururugi’s memories didn’t touch, but the graves in the fields were distant enough that they didn’t bother him.

Still, it was long and boring work in the library with hours of sitting and reading through lists of soldiers and figuring out exactly where they had been buried. He had the advantage in his mother’s notes and what he had been able to sense from the graves, but he needed evidence for the people who were clamoring for more information. He needed to work his way through thousands of books to prove what his instincts and the remains of the ghosts told him.

“Suzaku? You still there?”

He started at the sound of his cousin’s voice, Suzaku tearing his gaze away from the fields. He shook his head and glanced at the floor instead, it was less distracting than the fields. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Are you you? What year is it?”

“I’m still me. And it’s 2119. I’m fine.”

Kaguya huffed, probably not satisfied by his answer. She never was until she could actually see him. Kaguya had told him once that he became a different person under the influence of the memories, although Suzaku couldn’t tell himself. It was more like his mind just switched tracks and it never felt strange for him, at least not until he came out of it.

He could hear her grumbling on the other end of the line, a sure sign that she didn’t quite believe him, but she was away in Tokyo with no way out. She was supposed to be training the people who had come out to help with the business in Tokyo. They were supposed to be their fall back when they went back to taking international cases so they wouldn’t buckle under pressure again. After all, that’s what the rest of the world thought, that their last excursion to Britannia had just been stretching themselves too far. Suzaku had helped that along by not going too far from the house for the first half of the year.

Suzaku shifted so his back was completely against the wall and he was facing the library. “Kaguya, I’m fine. There hasn’t been an incident since last month.”

“That you’ve told me about.”

Suzaku let the comment slide. He drummed his fingers against the wall of the house before raising his shoulder in a shrug that Kaguya wouldn’t see. “So, how’s it going out there?”

There was a beat of silence, Suzaku sure that Kaguya was letting him know that she noticed him trying to change the subject. She let him get away with it, Suzaku hearing her sigh. “Slowly. They’re stubborn out here.”

“Like Shinjuku?”

“Don’t talk to me about Shinjuku. You and I still have to finish there, if you feel up to it.”

“I should.”

Suzaku tipped his head to the side when he heard the sound of someone talking in the background. Kaguya answered back, her reply muffled as she pressed the phone against her shoulder. The conversation went on for a minute before Kaguya came back on the line.

“They’re waiting for me.”

“Go ahead. I’ll keep busy here.”

“Keep yourself out of trouble. I’ll call tomorrow.” Kaguya hung up before he could say anything.

Suzaku looked down at his phone and shook his head, sliding it into his pocket a moment later. He would do as Kaguya said and start work on the graves, because it had to be done, but he felt too restless to start now. Maybe it was the announcement that he had partially heard. Some part of him expected the knight’s memories to start acting up, but they remained still and steady, just like they had been for months. That had to mean something.

Suzaku stared down at his hands, turning them over slowly in the light. He didn’t want to think that he had beaten them, he had a feeling he would never be able to really beat the command that still echoed through his mind, but he could learn to live around it. He thought he had managed alright so far. At least it was better than before, when he would spend days moving between his and the knight’s memories.

He sighed and glanced back out towards the gardens, his eyes widening as he saw someone moving through them. He stepped closer to the window, groaning when he saw the woman pause in the garden. It was obvious that she saw him, because she waved and started to amble around to the front of the building like she had been there before. Then again, Suzaku was almost sure that she had been.

He cursed under his breath and walked over to the front door, yanking it open and stepping onto the porch. The woman was just a few moments behind him, her hands tucked behind her back.

C.C. gave him a quick glance before she continued her stroll, stopping on the path that would lead past the old storehouse to the shrine. She seemed content to just stand there, leaving him to make up the distance.

Suzaku sighed and turned around to jam shoes on his feet. He was still wiggling his left foot in as he stepped down from the porch and onto the path. His foot slid into place as he approached C.C, the woman not bothering to turn around and look at him. Suzaku was fine with that, he just crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

C.C. remained quiet for a while longer before she turned slightly, just enough that Suzaku could see the corner of her eye. He thought he saw the corner of her mouth twitch up in a smile. “Suzaku.”

“C.C.”

The simple use of her name seemed to be enough to make her turn around. He saw a brief smile cross her face before her usual expression was back. She played with a strand of hair, staring down at it instead of her. “So you remained sane.”

“I tried my best.”

“Good. Have you heard the news?”

“People keep asking me that.”

“I’m sure they expect you to go on some kind of rage.”

“I’m sure they do. Did you?”

C.C. chuckled and flipped the strand of hair over her shoulder. “You and your cousin have turned out to be surprisingly resilient. I knew you would be fine.”

Suzaku was sure that it was almost a compliment, so he let it pass. Instead, he held her gaze. “So you’re checking up on me.”

“I’m enjoying newfound independence.” C.C. stretched her arms above her head before relaxing again. “I’ve been tied down to one place for too long. I needed to leave before someone else figured it out.”

“They’re all too busy.”

“For now, but their attention will stray soon enough. Politics and solved mysteries will only hold them for so long. And I intend to be long gone by the time they come back to my mystery.”

“Sounds lonely.”

“It’s practical.” C.C. shrugged and started to wander down the path. For a moment, Suzaku thought that she was heading for the shrine, but she stopped short. He turned his head to follow where she was looking, surprised to see that she was looking down towards the fields. He raised an eyebrow, about to ask what she was looking at when C.C. spoke up again. “And Julius needed someone to translate.”

“Julius?”

C.C. nodded, her attention already sliding away. “He didn’t want to brave the stairs, so he walked out into the fields. He read somewhere that its part of the battlefield out there. He also said something about sunflowers.”

Suzaku didn’t wait for her to finish, he turned and raced off for the steps. He thought he heard her laugh, but he didn’t pay much attention to the sound, he was too busy taking the steps two at a time.

He couldn’t imagine why Julius would want to come to Japan, not after everything that had happened in the Aries Villa. He and Kaguya had gotten their fee for the job and a note from Nunnally and Queen Euphemia thanking them for their work. There had been no word from Julius then, and Suzaku had assumed that the man had washed his hands of them. Suzaku wouldn’t have blamed him for it, he had tried to murder the man.

Suzaku stumbled over the last steps down to the path in front of the shine. He grabbed onto one of the stone lanterns at the bottom for balance, taking deep breaths as he steadied himself.

It was hard to see the field from his vantage point, the trees that ran along the path until it ended. Suzaku swallowed and gripped the lantern tighter, staring out in the direction of the field.

Now that he had overcome his initial surprise at the news, running right to where Julius was didn’t seem like such a good idea. He had no idea why Julius had come to Japan or if Julius actually wanted to see him. Suzaku could remember bits and pieces from the night, but that was joined with what Kaguya had told him and his memories of the actual Zero Requiem. He had no idea of what Julius had seen in the end, or what he had said.

His fingers twitched around the lantern. That was one of the things that worried him the most. The only clear memory from that night had been when he had managed to fight off the memory of Zero Requiem. As soon as Kaguya started the ceremony to send Lelouch off, he had given ground to Sir Kururugi. It had seemed like the right thing to do, especially with what he had gotten from the knight’s memories. It was exactly as C.C. had said.

_“Once upon a time there was an emperor and he knighted his best friend since childhood to be his knight. No one loved the knight more than his emperor and no one loved the emperor more than his knight.”_

He swallowed and let go of the lantern. The smart thing would be to turn around and go back to his house. He had plenty to work to occupy him, something that Kaguya would approve of. She would want him to avoid anything that would encourage the memories to come back and this was the one case that Suzaku would agree with. It was hard to pick out his feelings from the knight’s in this case. He had liked Julius, the man had been engaging and intelligent. But the Sir Kururugi had loved Lelouch, and the two of them looked the same. They had even acted the same. Suzaku didn’t know if it was reincarnation or just history repeating himself, and he honestly hadn’t looked too closely at it. It was easier just to acknowledge the attraction and move on. And it would be easier to do that by separating himself from Julius.

He could go back and pretend that he had never heard that the man was in the area, except that Suzaku was sure that C.C. wouldn’t leave him alone. She was bound to turn up again once she was done revisiting old haunts. Some part of him, the part that sounded a lot like the knight, was sure that C.C. was using the visit as an excuse to check up on him. Suzaku knew for sure that the almost fond feeling was from the knight.

Suzaku didn’t have time to go over the feeling too closely. He jerked his head up, his eyes widening as he saw Julius coming around the trees.

“C.C?” The man stopped in his tracks, staring at Suzaku.

It was a relief to see that Julius was just as surprised as he was. Julius took a quick step back seeming ready to run away, but he stopped himself. Julius swayed in place before seeming to make up his mind. He let his hands hand loose by his side, seeming resigned to his fate. “She set us up, didn’t she?”

“She said you were in the field.”

“I was, but only because she promised that she would be right back.”

“And you believed her?”

“I had no reason not to.” Julius sighed, giving him a shaky smile. “But she did seem too interested in the house and the shrine. I wanted…I wanted to be sure you were home before we visited.”

Suzaku sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He twisted to look back up at the red _torii_ gate at the top of the stairs. He couldn’t see C.C. from his position, but he knew that she was up there. It was just a matter of figuring out if she would actually watch them.

The knight said that she would, but it wasn’t an unkind thought.

He turned to look back at Julius, watching as the man continued to shift in his embarrassment. Suzaku was sure that the two of them would stand in silence until Julius decided to walk off. He licked his lips, trying to figure out how to break the silence, relieved when Julius took on the responsibility.

“I thought you would be in Tokyo. Isn’t Kaguya there?”

Suzaku nodded. “She’s training up some more people, for when we start taking jobs again.”

He was surprised by the relief on Julius’ face. “So the two of you do intend to come back. The newspapers made it sound like the two of you were finished for good.”

“You read the newspapers?”

Julius made a face and turned away. He started walking towards the field again, not bothering to look back over his shoulder. It wouldn’t have mattered, because Suzaku trailed after him.

The two of them remained quiet until they stepped into the grass. The stalks were up to their hips, Suzaku sighing and reaching out to run his fingers over some of the stalks.

He remembered running through the fields as a kid, both as Sir Kururugi and himself, although the former never had to worry about stumbling over mostly rusted bits of Knightmare. They were still scattered around the field, most of the better parts already carted away. The only things that were left were the ones that would probably fall apart as soon as they were moved, the ones of no value to the museum.

Suzaku felt his foot knock against one of them. He paused to look down at the fragment, nudging it again with his foot. Part of the piece flaked away while the rest sunk further into the tangle of grass and weeds. Suzaku shook his head and looked back over to Julius, raising an eyebrow when he saw that the man was holding a piece of Knightmare armor so rusted that Suzaku couldn’t tell what part of the machine it had been, let alone what color it had been.

Julius turned the piece carefully over in his hands, staring at the underside of the piece before letting it drop back to the ground. Julius rubbed his hands to get the flakes of rust off, but the tips still remained slightly red stained.

Suzaku swallowed and looked away. He clenched his hand into a fist, trying to push away the image of blood on Julius’ finger tips. He was glad when Julius started speaking because it distracted him from the memory and the feeling of that blood being dragged across his bare cheek.

“I tried to read the newspapers, but it was hard. I kept finding bad translations. It got to the point where I was learning Japanese just to be able to read the articles.”

“C.C. said she was translating for you.”

“I’m working on it.” Suzaku looked back at Julius as the man sighed. Julius ran a hand through his hair, losing the last of the rust stains somewhere along the way. “But I thought that it was a good time to come over, although I honestly thought that you would be in Tokyo. With everything going the way it was, it was time that I started looking on the other side of this.”

Julius paused for a moment before turning slightly to look at Suzaku. “After you left, I started looking into Zero Requiem, which led into researching Lelouch’s rule. And I think I understand it now. It was all a lie, wasn’t it?”

Suzaku swallowed, but nodded slowly. He had the advantage over Julius because of Sir Kururugi’s memories. The knight had been part of it, had lived through the entire thing. Suzaku hadn’t been able to make himself pick up a book about Lelouch’s reign, not when he would have found nothing but the lies established to protect the peace. Suzaku was sure that others would be sure to follow Julius’ example, considering all the information that Britannia was allowing to leak out. It would take them longer, considering that would never have the most important piece of information.

Julius hummed to himself, not seeming to notice the way that Suzaku had squirmed at the mention of the truth. The man seemed to be far away, his gaze focused somewhere far ahead of them. “I thought so. Just knowing that makes it all make sense, even the things that he did as a ghost. That’s all I’ve been trying to do for the past year, make everything make sense. I’m sure Nunnally thought I was insane spending so much time at the villa, after I spent so many years staying away from it.”

“She didn’t say anything?”

“No, politics kept her busy. The nobles are still trying to break down what Euphy and Schneizel have done and then she was whisked off to the EU to work on an old treaty there. And then to appeal to the UFN.” Julius laughed, shaking his head. “We just got ourselves a house in Pendragon and I don’t think she’s spent a week in it since we moved in. I’ve had a lot of time to work, especially since I’ve been bombarded by requests to write articles about Lelouch and his reign.” He offered Suzaku a helpless shrug. “The Demon Emperor is in.”

“But you haven’t told anyone.”

“No one would believe me. The world likes the idea that they’ve created peace out of a tyrant’s reign. Let them have their lie, but I’m not going to settle for it. That’s why I came here.” Julius gestured at the field. “Lelouch started here and ended here, so why not come to the source?”

“Sounds like you made progress.”

Julius made a noncommittal sound, waving a hand like a year’s worth of work was nothing. Suzaku just smiled and turned his gaze ahead to the small rise that crossed the field.

At one point, most of the field had been used for rice, although the fields had gone fallow after the Battle of Mount Fuji. Suzaku couldn’t imagine any farmers wanting to work through a tangle of Knightmare parts and bones. The rise had always marked the end of the rice fields, although it was only noticeable now because of the change in the height of the grass and the sunflowers that still grew wild. The sunflowers were nodding slightly in the breeze, Suzaku smiling at the sight of them.

A quick glance over at Julius showed that he was staring at the sunflowers in awe. Julius took a quick step forward before walking quickly towards the rise. Suzaku watched him scramble up the rise, shaking his head at Julius’ sudden enthusiasm.

He followed at a slower pace, sliding his hands into his pockets. He had gotten out of the house like his cousin had asked, and he was heading in the direction of the major clusters of graves. He could get the work looming over his head done easily while walking through the fields. Suzaku was sure that Julius wouldn’t mind, it would just be more clues to the grand puzzle he was assembling.

Suzaku slowed down further, watching Julius top the rise. He felt something in his stomach lurch when Julius turned around to look back at him. He felt the urge to cover the distance between him and Julius, but he reined himself back. There was no reason to try and separate his feelings from the knight’s, because it didn’t matter. They were all so tangled and twisted because Suzaku hadn’t bothered to find the cracks between them. It had been hard enough to get back to his life in Japan with everything that the knight had been through without worrying about an event that Suzaku assumed would never happen.

Then again, he should have expected it. Because it was Julius and because it was Lelouch. No version of the man could do anything that was expected.

He sighed and trudged forward, ignoring the way that Julius waved him up. He reached the edge of the rise, glancing over the path that Julius had taken. He set his hands in place, bouncing on the balls of his feet before beginning to haul himself up.

Dirt trickled around his fingers, Suzaku remaining still for a moment to make sure that the rise would hold his weight. He had scrambled all over the field when he was a child, but that had been when he was smaller and had weighed less. Back then he had been fearless and full of boundless energy. Suzaku was sure that he would have scrambled up the rise in half the time and probably already have been running towards the back of the hill that the shrine was on.

He smiled to himself, freezing again when he felt more dirt slip. Suzaku glanced back at his foot, the shift of weight too much for the dirt. The foothold slipped, Suzaku muttering a curse and pushing off from his other foot.

More dirt felt as he hauled himself up, Suzaku feeling it slip through his fingers. One hold dissolved completely, Suzaku jerking his hand back and reaching up.

He felt his fingers slide against warm skin, Suzaku grabbing onto the open hand before he thought about the action. He glanced up at Julius, slightly amused by the way that the man braced himself carefully on the edge of the rise. Julius’ arm shook as he took Suzaku’s weight. It was a hold that wouldn’t last for long.

Suzaku got a better hold on Julius’ hand before scrambling up the rest of the slope, feeling the edge dissolving under his foot as he stepped away.

Julius didn’t let go, towing the two of him back. Suzaku saw the man’s gaze flicker to the rise before Julius shook his head. “We should have chosen a better spot.”

Suzaku shrugged. “It was closer.”

Julius huffed, still keeping his hold of Suzaku’s hand as he turned to face Mount Fuji in the distance. Julius sucked in a quick breath, letting it out slowly.

Suzaku let him marvel, the mountain was an impressive one. He turned his gaze back towards the hill where his house sat, scanning the gardens and open spaces for any sign of C.C. He wasn’t surprised when he didn’t see her there. She had probably wandered off to amuse herself, taking a chance that she hadn’t gotten for one hundred years. Suzaku wouldn’t have been surprised if she didn’t return when Julius went back to Britannia. She probably wanted to get away almost as much as she wanted to stick around the two of them.

His gaze dropped to where Julius was still clutching at his hand, suddenly aware of their close contact. He took a step away, freezing when Julius didn’t let go. The pull between the two of them was enough to pull Julius’ attention back to him, the man’s gaze quickly dropping to their joined hands.

For one moment, Suzaku was sure that Julius was going to drop his hand and stutter out an excuse. If that happened, then Suzaku would just have to go with his old plan, except that the easy conversation between the two of them would stop. He could go on his business and Julius would drift off back to Britannia, just like he had wanted when he had left the Aries Villa a year ago.

The thought wasn’t as tempting as it had been. He had spent the last year away from people, almost afraid of what he would do or what they would see. Suzaku was always sure that people could tell that something was wrong with him. Kaguya had agreed with him staying away because his mental defenses were already weak. Suzaku was sure that she had worried that he would be possessed again, although he couldn’t imagine that happening. Any ghost that tried would have to deal with Sir Kururugi’s memories and Suzaku couldn’t think of a ghost that would stay with that trouble. If anything, most of them would be scared away by the memories of the traitor knight.

Julius’ silence didn’t help the situation. The man was still staring at their joined hands like he was almost surprised by the fact that he was still holding Suzaku’s hand. Suzaku expected Julius to let go, but the man just seemed to hold on tighter, like he was afraid that Suzaku would disappear as soon as he let go.

Suzaku swallowed, taking a step closer to Julius to ease the tension in their arms. When the motion didn’t shock Julius out of his staring, Suzaku cleared his throat. “You said you came here to research more about Emperor Lelouch? I thought you couldn’t read Japanese?”

“I can…a bit. Barely.” Admitting his failure seemed to take a lot out of Julius. The man winced and turned away, but he didn’t let go of Suzaku’s hand. If anything, he held on tighter. “But that’s not the only reason.”

Julius swayed in place for a moment before letting out a bark of laughter. “C.C. would have had the answer out of me faster.”

“She used to dealing with us.”

The answer didn’t seem to sit well with Julius because he frowned. Suzaku wasn’t sure how much C.C. had told him or how much Julius had figured out. Talking about reincarnation or history repeating itself wouldn’t sit well with the man, especially when Julius would probably demand evidence where Suzaku had none. Aside from dragging Lelouch’s ghost back, there would be no way that he was going to convince Julius of a mystical answer. Talking about ghosts inside the villa and surrounded by Lelouch’s presence was one thing. Talking about ghosts and the strange tangle of past and future while standing out in the field was another.

Julius shook his head, probably to clear it. It was a familiar motion, one that Suzaku had to stop himself from smiling at. He was tempted to slide away to give Julius the time to think over what he was going to say, but Julius didn’t give him the chance.

The man cleared his throat and looked away towards the nodding sunflowers. “The only way to put it is that I’m chasing after the familiar. It’s like I’m remembering something, but it’s nothing that I’ve done, like this place.”

Suzaku shifted in place, looking out over the field. He half remembered that conversation, if only for the strangeness of it. His gaze strayed over to the sunflowers, staring at them as Julius kept talking.

“It’s been like this since I came over. It’s nothing useful, just small things. C.C. suggested that I come here because it seems like something you and Kaguya would know about. Since I wanted to come anyway…” Julius offered him a shrug instead of finishing his sentence, but Suzaku wasn’t surprised.

He should have known that C.C. would be behind the visit, at least to the point where she wouldn’t answer Julius’ questions in favor of fobbing him off on him and Kaguya. Suzaku didn’t think that he and Kaguya would be any more use, but it was just C.C. working her own angles. She was taking care of Julius before she went off on her own.

Suzaku wouldn’t have minded, if it hadn’t been sprung on him. He might be ready for the world, but he wasn’t ready for Julius quite yet. Suzaku would have expected it of Kaguya, but not C.C, not unless her patience had run out. If that had been the case, that was Julius’ fault and shouldn’t have been taken out on him.

He sighed and looked back over at Julius, speaking at the same time as the other man.

“I don’t know how helpful we’ll be.”

“I also wanted to check on you.”

Suzaku snapped his mouth shut, his eyes going wide. He felt Julius let go of his hand. Suzaku was sure that he should reach out and grab Julius back, but he couldn’t move, the shock grounding him in place. He could only watch as Julius walked away from him.

The man didn’t walk far, just enough to put distance between them. Julius remained facing away from him, Suzaku dropping his gaze to Julius’ hands. His fingers were curling and uncurling, like he was thinking things over. He recognized the gesture more from Lelouch than from Julius; the emperor had always been playing with something when he thought.

Suzaku swallowed, about to take a step back to increase the distance between them when Julius turned around abruptly. “You disappeared for a year and I only found out what was going on through Japanese newspapers; ones that I could get barely passable translations on.”

“I didn’t think it mattered.”

“We fought off a ghost together. You were possessed by it. You tried to kill me.” Suzaku winced at the reminder, but Julius kept talking. “I think that qualifies for something more than a message passed through C.C.”

“Would you be able to look at me?” Suzaku glared at Julius, feeling his anger flare before he pushed it back down. It was harder to control the memories when he was angry. Besides, it wasn’t Julius’ fault. “You probably thought I had come to finish the job.”

Julius opened and shut his mouth for a moment before he shook his head. “You could have at least said something. I didn’t know you had left until C.C. told me. I was about to go out the door and find you.”

“Why?”

“Because of what I was figuring out about Lelouch. I thought that you would want to know considering all the work that you and your cousin did.”

Suzaku shrugged, almost amused by the surprised look on Julius’ face. “Kaguya and I are used to not knowing the whole story. The first ending doesn’t matter as much as the second.”

“So you weren’t curious?”

Suzaku offered another shrug. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been curious, it was that he’d had the answers to everything. It had been more answers than he had ever needed about the complex plan. He could have lived without the knowledge, especially since it had meant that he had spent many nights working through the loss of the best friend that he had never had. They weren’t memories that he wanted to relieve.

For a moment, he had a burst of jealousy for Julius and his calmer moments of remembering, but he pushed the feeling away. If he wanted to blame anyone, he would blame Lelouch and his Geass. A feeling of deep exhaustion followed the thought, Suzaku slumping slightly. He and the knight were tried of blaming Lelouch, it never worked to make them feel better.

He looked up as Julius huffed, watching as the man shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a moment. But I’ll let you keep your reasons.”

Suzaku couldn’t help but to tip his head to the side, an approximated bow for the courtesy. He smiled when he heard Julius laugh. The sound made the last little bit of worry that he held untwist.

He tucked his hands into his pockets watching as Julius turned back to look at the sunflowers. “But that won’t stop you from looking, right?”

Suzaku got a quick grin for an answer before Julius went back to looking at the flowers. The man reached out to trace over a few petals, Suzaku noticing the way that his gaze strayed back towards the back of the hill. Suzaku followed his gaze, mentally tracing out the path over the landscape.

If Julius walked in that direction, he would cross through what remained of the forest at the back of the shrine before reaching the small field that remained on the other side. Suzaku’s father had said that the field on the other side of the hill had once been as big as the one that they were standing in, but it had been developed when he was a child. That hadn’t stopped Suzaku from trekking through the streets to get to the lake that was on the other side.

There was a flicker of memory from the knight, but he ignored it. Suzaku didn’t want to get lost in a summer that wasn’t his, not when Julius could ask him a question at any moment.

Suzaku turned his head back as Julius stepped away from the flower. His eyes were wide, a look of shock on his face. Suzaku was about to ask what was wrong when Julius shook his head. Julius recovered himself quickly, giving the sunflower one last glance before pivoting around to look at Suzaku.

He looked Suzaku over once before sighing. “I’m sure you’re tired of having to deal with Lelouch. You more than anyone would probably want to just forget him-”

“But you need my help.”

Julius nodded reluctantly. “I could ask C.C, but she has better things to do.”

“And I know Japanese.”

“That’s also a reason.” Julius huffed, obviously tired of being interrupted. Suzaku smiled but kept his mouth shut, watching as Julius restructured his train of thought.

The man struggled for a moment before Julius shot him a helpless look. “We worked well together before, back at the villa.”

Suzaku nodded, feeling something about the phrase tug at his memory, but it didn’t sound quite right. Before he could think over why that was, he spoke. “We can do anything together.”

That startled a smile out of Julius, the man nodding slowly. “I like the sound of that. So, what do you say?”

He stuck his hand out, Suzaku staring at it.

It would be so easy to say no and go back to the life he had been living. After all, Kaguya wouldn’t approve, it was too close to Sir Kururugi’s memories. Maybe if he gave it another few months then it would be alright to go wading back into that territory. It would also be another commitment on top of their usual jobs, something that Suzaku was sure he wouldn’t be able to wiggle out of. But Julius had to know that.

Besides, the offer was more than just to work together in piecing together Lelouch vi Britannia’s life. There was a chance that Julius was offering with open arms, something that wouldn’t come again if he ran. Neither of them could afford to go chasing the other all over the world.

In the end, there was only once choice he could make.

Suzaku reached out to grab onto Julius’ hand, giving it a firm shake. “Deal.”

Julius’ face lit up into a smile before it settled into something like contentment, the man not bothering to let go of his hand. Suzaku didn’t mind in the least, not when the knight’s memories were a dull warmth in the back of his head, nothing but three children laughing and playing through a warm summer. This was right and meant to be, Suzaku could feel that through some same cosmic surety, be it reincarnation or just history repeating itself. He didn’t care.

All that mattered was the warm sun, Julius’ hand in his and the sunflowers nodding in the warm breeze.

END


End file.
